


Chuck vs. the Return Visit

by Ultra



Series: The Casey & Marie Files [2]
Category: Chuck (TV)
Genre: Action & Romance, Confusion, Developing Relationship, Double Dating, Drama & Romance, Established Relationship, F/M, Fake Character Death, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Friendship, Goodbyes, Kissing, Sequel, Sexy Times, Shooting, Spies & Secret Agents, Strong Female Characters, Team, Trouble, Undercover Missions, Undercover as a Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-08
Updated: 2010-09-08
Packaged: 2019-05-23 10:04:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14932172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: Agent Marie Clarke is back in town and Casey might find it hard to resist her this time around. But what trouble might the Trouble Shooter be bringing to Burbank with her? Team Bartowski are about to find out!





	1. Chapter 1

“Why do things never go according to the plan?!” yelled Chuck as he pelted down the hotel corridor at top speed, arms and legs flailing like Kermit the Frog.

From around the corner behind him appeared the regulation gun-toting thug that was after him. Of course, he didn’t get any further as Sarah appeared out of the door right in front of him, slamming him to the ground with a well-placed kick, and ensuring he was going to stay down, before hurrying to catch up to the Asset that meant so much more to her than just the job.

“Casey!” she barked into her watch as she ran. “One down, one still loose!” she warned him. “I’m taking Chuck back to the Castle. Watch your back.”

“Always do.” came his response, as he peered around the next corner, gun ready in his hands should he run across the second of the enemy pair that had caused them trouble tonight.

It wasn’t as big a problem as it might be, they weren’t Fulcrum or anything, just a couple of wannabe bad guys that had got in the way of a little recon. Unfortunately, they had guns that were no less capable of causing injury or death, in fact their nervousness and lack of skill made it all the more likely they would cause Casey harm. It didn’t matter much to him, this was what he lived for, the thrill of the chase, the drama and action of it all. So much the better without Bartowski hanging like a weight around his neck as he did the job he loved.

Peering around the corner at the same moment as the enemy, Casey ducked back just in time as a shot rang out down the empty hallway. Backing up a few steps, keeping alert and aware that at any moment he could be under attack again, the NSA agent really was not ready for the door to open behind him and a maid to step out into the corridor. Reacting lightning fast the second his back bumped hers, Casey spun around, training the gun on perhaps the last face he had ever expected to see.

“Of all the hotels in all the towns..,” she breathed, a smile curving her lips as she pushed her new copper-dyed waves back over her shoulder.

“Think you’ll find you’re in my town, Clarke,” he told her, no real malice in his words as he let his grip on the gun loosen, a hardly-ever-seen smile forming on his face.

“Clarke, huh?” Marie looked amused and surprised by his words. “So formal, John, after all we shared,” she teased him, feeling the heat as genuine between them now as it had been over a year ago when they’d last seen each other.

“What are you doing here, Marie?” he asked her seriously, trying to remember he also needed to be on guard for the guy somewhere behind him, still armed and out to get him.

“Well, y’know if I told you I’d have to kill you,” she told him, one hand skimming the edge of her short skirt, hitching it up a little further until Casey saw the edge of the gun she had strapped to her thigh.

Clearly some kind of mission had brought her back to Burbank, and as with all agents, Marie could not reveal any details for fear of trouble from either the enemy or the bosses. Casey understood that, and whatever Marie was here for didn’t matter to him, so long as she was on his side. He didn’t always like members of the CIA, and that included Walker, but this particular member of the force he could deal with having around.

“Why do I think now isn’t a good time for caching up?” she asked him as he peered behind him around the corner again, still very aware of his own mission.

“Can’t say you’re wrong,” agreed Casey, turning a moment later and firing off a couple of shots - one bullet hit the wall, the other skimmed the oppositions shoulder, but it didn’t stop him firing back. “Why won’t this asshole just die?!” he said more to himself than to Marie.

She laughed lightly at his words, peering around the corner herself and leaning all over Casey in the process. He would’ve argued but there was little point, besides which it wasn’t the worst feeling in the world and evoked all kinds of memories he couldn’t help but enjoy.

“He’s not so tough,” she said as she moved away again, pulling the gun from the holster at her thigh and flashing Casey a decent view in the process. “You work a hotel like I’ve been doing, you get the layout locked down before you start.” She smiled, tapping the side of her head as if to indicate all the information she could possibly need in there as she suddenly ran off in the opposite direction.

Casey couldn’t quite make out what her plan was and didn’t have time to wonder. In the few seconds that he spent trying to decide between going after her or making a new attack on the enemy, he heard a crash and turned to find the guy who he’d been trying to out manoeuvre was lying on the floor, his head and arms visible around the corner now. With a frown of confusion, Casey approach him carefully, gun cocked and ready for attack, only to have Marie appear at his side once again, now with two weapons in her hands, her own and the enemy’s gun apparently.

“You wanted him dead, right?” she asked him, breathing heavily, her chest drawing his attention some, not least because her shirt had got torn in her tussle.

Casey knew he ought to be a professional, worry first about disposing of the body and then getting back to the Castle, letting Walker and Bartowski know everything was taken care of. Strangely, or perhaps not really so strange, all he could think about was the night Marie Clarke had last left town, what almost happened before they found out who she really was.

Forcing his base instincts down with his forceful resolve and over-riding need to do his job for his country’s sake, Casey tore his eyes from the shapely form of his impromptu partner and concentrated on getting a message back to the Castle.

“Walker, it’s Casey!” he barked into his watch. “Two down, just gotta deal with the aftermath.”

“Copy that, Casey,” came Sarah’s reply. “We’ll need disposal, Room 515,” she said of the other body left behind. “You need a hand?”

He glanced at Marie who shook her head no as she put her gun back in her holster, the other in the waistband of her skirt and then set about dragging the body by its arm down the hall.

“I can handle the clean-up,” he said definitely, breaking the connection then and helping Marie with getting rid of the guy who had already been a pain in his ass all day. “There’s another one on the fifth floor,” he told her.

“Not a problem,” she assured him, all business for a minute as they took the body to the room she’d originally come out of and dumped him there.

Within seconds she was talking into a radio to some team somewhere, ordering a pickup by the sounds of it as she gave them the number of the two rooms where the dead men lay.

“You didn’t need these guys for anything, right?” she checked, to which Casey shook his head no, and they left in silence, her locking the door up again behind them and hanging a Do Not Disturb sign on the knob just in case. “Hate that part.” She winced a little as she turned away.

“Death is part of life.” Casey shrugged, not at all phased apparently. “Better them than us,” he told her easily.

“That is true.” She sighed as they walked down the hall together. “I mean, some people are just too pretty to die,” she said with a playful smile that was impossible for Casey not to react to.

“Yep,” he said as he looked down on her there beside him. “We’re gonna be here a long time,” he told her, sure of himself enough to be so bold, sure of her too.

There was no denying she was a hell of a women, not just in looks though she appeared to have been built to drive men crazy with her figure and face combined. Still, it wasn’t only that getting to John Casey. Fact was he liked a woman that spoke her mind, that didn’t take crap from anyone, not even him, and who looked equally as good in a pretty dress being shy and smiley as she did playing action hero with a gun in her hand.

“So, Major Casey,” she said as she stepped in front of him, one hand pushing her hair back from her face and the other landing on his chest, she looked up at him with a seductive sort of a smile. “What do you think you and I should do with all this time we have to spare?” she asked, the look on her face telling him just exactly what was going on in her head, if everything else wasn’t already making to obvious.

“I think,” he told her, putting his hands to her shoulders and moving her aside, “we should do our jobs, Agent Clarke,” he told her, just then realising his rookie mistake.

Turning her away had put her back against the wall, and his hands on her body only confused the situation for both of them.

“Hmm.” She sighed. “All work and no play, makes Johnny a dull boy,” she joked, side stepping towards the nearest door, he followed without comment. “Y’know, I have all these keycards, so many rooms to choose from..,” she said, reaching a hand behind her and easily opening the lock. “Bingo,” she smiled as she pushed open the door and tripped backwards into the room.

Casey followed her, catching her with lightning fast reactions when she almost fell. He simultaneously kicked the door shut and pulled her close enough to kiss. This might be his worst idea ever or his best, he honestly wasn’t sure, but there was every chance that she was going to walk out on him again tonight and this time never come back. They had unfinished business and that was something John Casey didn’t take kindly too. Still, messing around with Marie could lead to all kinds of complications...

“C’mon, John,” she encouraged him when he seemed to hesitate still. “I’m the one taking the risk here, after your little handcuffing trick... and it wasn’t even in the fun way,” she reminded him, waiting to see how he’d react.

She didn’t get a chance to think on it long as he suddenly crashed his lips onto hers, kissing her deeply. It was all she was waiting for, all the encouragement she needed to go all out tonight. Guys like Casey didn’t come along too often and she planned to quite literally grab him with both hands now she had the chance. Last time had just left her wanting him all the more, maybe because he was what she knew she couldn’t have, but there was no time right now to wonder on the whys and wherefores.

The back of Marie’s legs hit the bed, but she didn’t fall, Casey made sure of that. He lifted her up effortlessly, never letting up on kissing her, touching her, thrilling her.

“Don’t get fat-headed or anything,” she gasped as they worked at getting each other out of their clothing, “but I’ve been waiting a long time for this”

“Might’ve thought about it myself,” he admitted, as his arms wrapped around her, fingers running through her hair.

“Okay, not good,” she said then, breaking another steamy kiss and feeling less than amorous as his watch caught in her hair and pulled tight.

In haste she reached to unbuckle the damn thing and sacrificed a few strands of her red hair to get it away from her all the quicker. Flinging the watch to the ground, she pulled Casey back down to her a second later, kissing him long and hard, determined this night wasn’t getting ruined like the last one. It felt too good to stop, to care what happened before or after.

Unfortunately, both Marie and Casey were so caught up in their passion, they failed to notice that the watch she’d flung aside had activated. Had they realised they might’ve done something about it, as their gasps and moans were audible not just in the empty room but in the Castle too..


	2. Chapter 2

A shift at the BuyMore used to be Casey’s worst nightmare. His job was as an agent, kicking butt and taking names, playing all action hero. He liked being the good guy that got to act like a bad guy, it suited him perfectly. Hiding all that away inside a luminous green shirt, having to be nice to idiot customers at a store run by clowns and fools, it was all Casey could do to keep his temper in check and not shoot them all on sight.

Today was a little different for John Casey, and all because of last night. A successful mission always made him feel happy, even if that emotion really didn’t show much on the outside. Of course, that was just a tiny part of what had made him feel good today, and it really had been good. Casey caught himself before the dumb smile on his face stuck too much and got noticed. He concentrated on re-pricing the sale items before him on the shelves, and yet his mind was wandering just a little.

Marie Clarke, she was a hell of a woman, in more ways than one. He’d been with his fair share over time, but liaisons, for lack of a better term, were few and far between these days. That didn’t mean she was just another notch on Casey’s bedpost, she was better than that, not least because he’d had to wait so damn long to get with her, and damn, if she hadn’t made it worth his while.

Casey turned away from his now completed work and caught sight of Chuck staring at him from behind the Nerd Herd desk. He wasn’t sure there was ever an expression that crossed Bartwoski’s face that didn’t bug the hell out of him, and yet today he had felt nothing angry or annoyed at all, despite the fact the kid had what ought to have been the most aggravating smirk ever on his stupid grinning face right now.

Walking on over there, Casey was pretty sure he didn’t want to know the answer to the next question that left his lips, but it might just get the dumb look off Bartowski’s face before the post-coital cloud wore off and made Casey want to drop the kid on his head for something better to do.

“What’s with the look, Bartowski?” he asked him, leaning on the Nerd Herd counter opposite him.

“Look? What look?” he replied with a shrug, but the smirk wouldn’t leave and he was practically giggling like a school girl at this point.

“You’re lucky I’m in a good mood.” Casey shook his head, turning to walk away before this whole thing ruined the rare feeling he was still holding onto.

“I know what you did last mission,” Chuck sing-songed behind him, the smile on his face making his meaning very obvious, even if his words could be taken in more than one way.

Somehow it seemed Bartowski knew about Marie and just exactly what the two of them had got up to at the hotel last night. How the hell he could know was beyond Casey, but there was no doubt in his mind that it was true as he turned back around and glared at the geek. That made the smirk slide off Chuck’s face in a matter of seconds, as Casey stalked back over to the desk, into the Nerd Herd’s sacred area, and dragged the kid out by his arm.

No-one stood a chance of interrupting, as Casey pulled the Asset roughly towards the entertainment suite, practically throwing him inside. Sure no-one was watching them, like Big Mike or Milbarge who would make things complicated, he followed Chuck inside and slammed the door shut behind them. The blinds were pulled next as the Asset was pushed unceremoniously onto the couch.

“What do you think you know?” asked Casey as he stood before him, arms folded over his chest and the usual angry look on his features.

“Just... well, nothing much really.” Chuck played down the knowledge that he suddenly wished he really didn’t have!

Truth be told, he hadn’t been too thrilled at the time to realise he was hearing his handler and a woman getting up close and personal. He’d had to endure that once before and he didn’t love the idea of going through it all again.

“Bartowski!” His name was all it took, in that particular tone from Casey, and the Asset was quaking, not least because the larger man’s hand had slid somewhat closer to where the guns were stashed.

“Okay, okay,” he declared, hands raised in some kind of surrender. “We got back to the Castle, Sarah and me, and she got straight on the computer, y’know writing up the case so far and all...”

“Get to the point, Chuck,” Casey snapped at him, bored already and his good mood having completely evaporated just as soon as he realised his time spent with Marie last night had an audience of at least two who he would rather not have known about it at all.

“So, yeah, suddenly I hear you talking,” the visibly scared Asset continued, “and I turn around but you’re not there, and that’s when I realise, your voice is coming from Sarah... from her watch communicator,” he amended when her realised how weird it had sounded the first way. “I’m guessing the button got hit on yours, got stuck or something when you were... y’know?” he said awkwardly.

Casey turned away, feeling like a stupid dumb rookie as his eyes went to the watch on his wrist. He’d let Marie take it off and throw it aside, not even thinking about any consequences. Like Bartowski said, it would seem the communication button had got stuck on, probably during the whole liaison, meaning Chuck and Sarah heard every word said if they cared to listen. An angry growl escaped Casey’s throat, borne out of embarrassment he refused to show more than anything else.

“We only got the visual because Sarah needed to verify who you were with,” said Chuck in a small voice shifting forward on the couch.

Casey spun round to face him again in a second, sending the Asset flinching back into the cushions almost cowering under the intensely angry gaze of his NSA handler.

“Walker couldn’t just mind her own damn business?” he barked, bringing out just a little bravery in Chuck as he felt the need to defend his pseudo-girlfriend.

“Hey, in her position, you would’ve done the same thing,” he argued. “We’re a team, we look out for each other,” he pointed out.

“Like I need it.” Casey snorted. “I’m guessing you hacked into the hotel security cameras?” he checked, at which Chuck nodded. “Enjoy the show, Bartowski?” he sneered, leaving Chuck honestly unsure whether he was supposed to say yes or no to that.

“Once we saw you were with Marie, we shut the whole thing down,” he said instead. “We knew you guys were safe together and...”

“And?” Casey prompted when the kid stopped mid sentence.

“And, well, it was obvious the last time she was here that you guys were close,” he said carefully, mindful of Casey’s love of causing all kinds of pain or at the very least threatening it, especially when his feelings were mentioned. “You do know it’s cool if you like her, right, Casey?”

There was nothing but a snort in response to that. Fact of the matter was, Casey had already admitted to himself at least that Marie was more important to him than a roll in the hay, not that he was really sure why. He liked a woman with a mind of her own, a similar sarcastic sense of humour to himself, and hey, the body she had and knew how to use didn’t hurt either.

“Casey, you can try all you want to make me believe you’re like the tin man or whatever,” said Chuck bravely, “but I don’t believe that. I remember how you were with Marie before, I remember Ilsa too. You do care about people”

“So what?” the much larger guy asked, admitting nothing. “My personal life is none of your damn business, Bartowski”

“Understood.” Chuck nodded madly, as his handler looked menacingly down on him, his nervousness tripling inside a few seconds. “Can I go now?” he asked hopefully and was easily dismissed as Casey stepped back from the boy and let him run out the door.

The man in the green shirt stayed behind, arms folded across his chest as he watched Bartowski bolt back to his little sanctuary behind the Nerd Herd desk. It didn’t thrill him that the kid and Walker had been eavesdropping and even seen some of what happened between himself and Marie, but he couldn’t help but smile anyway. It didn’t much phase him to know he’d had an audience, but chances were good he’d warped Bartowski’s feeble little mind forever. Hell, maybe he ought to have kept watching a little longer, Casey thought, boy might’ve learnt something.

* * *

Casey may not love his job at the BuyMore but at least this part of it meant not having to deal with idiot customers or his fellow employees who tended to be even more dumb than the general public could manage. Out back, shifting boxes of new stock, it was a task usually given to him as he had far more in the way of muscles than the rest of the staff, the freaks and geeks who he shared the shop floor with. Alone time suited Casey, and he got plenty of it doing this at least, so long as Bartowski didn't choose the same moment to come fix computers in the cage, and bug the hell out of him with his mindless rambling about feelings or some such crap.

Tallying up the number of microwave ovens he had just shifted, Casey made a note on his clipboard and glanced up at the clock. Less than a half hour til he could clock off and get out of here, then there was the paperwork from last nights mission to complete and probably a couple of free hours so long as nothing else came up, like a random flash in the Intersect’s brain.

Moving to start on shifting the rest of the stock from the back doors onto the shelving, Casey stopped short of picking up the nearest box when he heard a scraping noise beyond the door. His generally suspicious nature and of course his training and experience as an agent had him immediately listening more closely, preparing himself just in case some kind of attack followed. It was unlikely, after all it was probably just Jeff and Lester pulling pranks or Morgan and Ana getting down and dirty. He made a face of disgust at the very idea of either scenario and was about to go back to his work when the scraping sound ceased and the lock began to rattle instead. Someone wanted in, someone who most likely shouldn't have access.

Whether they were run of the mill burglars or Fulcrum agents, Casey didn’t much care. They were trying to break in to his ground, and that he was not about to stand for. Moving over to the door, he put an ear to the metal. He heard no voices, only continued efforts to get into the building. In one swift movement, Casey unlatched the door and swung it inwardly open, jumping back into a battle-ready stance, gun pulled from an unseen holster.

It would have been hard to decide who was more shocked had anyone seen the expression on the two faces that now looked into each other.

“Marie?” Casey frowned at the sight of her, not least because she was one of the last people he expected to see.

“Hey.” She forced a smile that all too quickly collapsed into a look of pain as she lurched forward.

It was only as Casey reacted fast, catching before she collapsed onto the ground, that he spotted the blood seeping through her clothes. Somehow she had got herself shot.

“What the hell...?” he asked as he held her steady and Marie swallowed down the moan of pain that desperately wanted to escape her throat.

“I’m sorry,” she apologised, evidently fighting unconsciousness as her eyes fluttered madly. “I didn’t know where else to go.”


	3. Chapter 3

“What’s goin’ on, Casey?” asked Chuck as he came hurrying into the Castle. “I had a tough time getting past Emmett and he’s not gonna be happy when he finds out you’re gone... too.” his sentence became disjointed as he came face to face with one of the last scenes he had been expecting.

There laid out on the table before him was the semi-conscious form of Trouble-Shooting Agent Marie Clarke enough blood coming out of her side that the sight of it made Chuck feel queasy. Casey came from one of the back rooms with what appeared to be first aid supplies at first, but proved themselves to be more advanced than that as he laid them out on the table in front of him.

“What happened?” asked the Asset with wide eyes.

“What do think you, Bartowski?” his handler snapped as he set to work on cleaning up what was very evidentially a bullet wound in Marie’s side.

Chuck was so astounded by this turn of events he honestly didn’t know what to say or do. All he got was a brief message to meet Casey in the Castle on the double, no explanation as to why or anything. The very last thing he’d expected to find was an old semi-ally laid out on the table bleeding, and apparently slipping in and out of consciousness. That told Chuck that this was more than a little serious. He knew agents were built to withstand bullet wounds, a little gun fire was part of the job and he’d seen Sarah, Casey, Bryce, and even Cole take hits and hardly even flinch. Marie looked properly exhausted and pale, like the very life was pouring out of her, and Chuck didn’t doubt that was true given the blood she was losing.

“Oh my God,” he said, at the realistion. “If she’s... Shouldn’t we get her to a hospital?” he asked.

“No, dumbass,” said Casey, blunt as ever as he worked. “You wanna try and explain this to your sister or some other civilian without blowing all our covers? Not gonna happen.”

“But she’s...” begun Chuck, realising that mentioning anything about dying in front of the patient was probably a bad idea, even if she didn’t appear all that able to listen or take in his words right now. “Can you help her?”

“It’s what I’m trying to do if you just shut your mouth!” said Casey, an overly loud and angry response, but then Chuck ought to have understood why he was getting so mad.

It wasn’t as if the agent didn’t know what he was doing here, and luckily the bullet didn’t seem to have gone far, not damaged any organs or anything. He’d patched up wounds like this before, on himself and on others. This was part of the job, trouble was Casey hadn’t really expected to be doing this here and now, and on this particular woman.

Last night he and Marie had been as close as two people could get and in all kinds of ways. He’d waited too long for that night and she had not disappointed. Casey was pretty sure she’d got what she wanted out of their time together too, and they had parted with a promise of a replay if they ever crossed paths again. He hadn’t for a moment considered she’d be back in his life again so fast and in such a state. In all the ways they had touched each other just a few hours ago, he had never thought this would be the next time he was within reach of her skin, pulling a bullet out of her flesh.

“Oh, God.” Chuck swallowed hard and flinched away from the sight before him.

He could only assume Marie was anaethatised and feeling nothing, which was lucky for her. He was feeling all kinds of sick and faint, not from the blood so much as the gaping hole in her flesh and the metal that must be carefully removed from it by Casey with some kind of over-sized tweezers.

“Suck it up, Bartowski,” Casey ordered immediately. “I need a hand with this,” he told the Asset who would have quite happily refused the order and bolted from the room.

It wasn’t even the way Casey snapped at him that made him stay, not even the fact he knew if he didn’t Marie might be in a worse state than she already was. It was the look in his handler’s eyes, the expression on his face as they looked at each other that had Chuck nodding in an instant and obeying the instructions he was given to wash up and get some gloves on. This wasn’t just a job to Casey, not right now, Chuck was certain of it. He had been right in what he said before, there was a definite connection between these two agents, one of whom at least liked to pretend he felt nothing at all about anyone or anything ever. If hadn’t known better he’d say there was love here in this bunker, but those words were never going to pass Chuck Bartowski’s lips. He didn’t much like the idea of being the next person with a bullet stuck in them!

It took a whole five minutes of trying to instruct Chuck in what he needed to do in order for them to help Marie, before Casey was so mad and red in the face the Asset was sure his handler’s head was about to explode. It wasn’t his fault, as he calmly tried to point out, it was Ellie and Awesome who were the Doctors, not him.

“Where the hell is Walker?!” exploded Casey as he fought to handle this on his own and found it less than simple.

He couldn’t keep pressure on the wound that oozed blood and work on both removing the bullet and patching it up with just one pair of hands. Chuck was worse than useless as soon as the red stuff appeared, and though he doubted his CIA agent partner was an expert in this kind of thing, she could at least follow instructions when needed and didn’t pass out at the sight of a papercut! Bullet wounds were as familiar to her as her own reflection, something about to be proven as Sarah came hurrying down the stairs.

“I got your message, Casey, what’s going on?” she asked, business-like as ever, her expression barely changing even when she took in the scene before her.

“Bartowski, get your sorry ass out of the way,” he was swiftly ordered, as Casey gestured for Sarah to get down there already. “Walker, get cleaned up. This bleeding has to stop, fast,” he said, with just a hint of desperation in his voice that had Sarah rattled.

Keeping her cool as was her job, she helped Casey deal with the matter in hand. There were a hundred questions to be asked and to be duly answered, they all knew that, but now was not the time. Ensuring Marie’s life, making her comfortable, these things came first. Afterwards they could puzzle out what had occurred and why, and then figure out what happened next.

* * *

“And I found her like that, shot up and passing out on me,” said Casey as he finished explaining what had happened with him and Marie this afternoon at the BuyMore.

He stood by the very table where the woman had been laid out, bleeding and half-conscious, as he and Walker had done their best to fix her up. Now the place was clean again, the Castle looking very much as it always did. Marie was sleeping it off in one of the unlocked cells, and Chuck and Sarah sat by the table (that Chuck would never look at the same way again), staring up at Casey as he completed his version of events.

“Did she tell you anything about what happened to her?” asked Sarah, at which her partner glared.

“She wasn’t exactly in a fit state to talk, Walker,” he snapped, as was his usual way.

“But last night,” said Chuck thoughtfully. “She didn’t say anything about why she was back in town or...?”

“You really think we were talking last night, Bartowski?” his handler said frostily, slamming his hand against the table and making the Asset visibly jump.

Casey didn’t like to lose his cool but Chuck had a way of pushing his buttons when he really could do without it. Walking away was better right now and so that was what he did, pacing some as he moved away from the table.

“Even if they were talking, Chuck,” Sarah told him in a very deliberately quiet voice, “Marie wouldn’t be so sloppy as to tell anyone her mission here, any more than Casey would tell her his,” she said definitely.

Chuck frowned at that, looking strangely at the blonde.

“What? Even when they...?” he asked with a weird tilt of his head and an expression that could only mean one thing.

Unfortunately for Chuck, Casey heard him from across the room and looked just about ready to explode as he stormed back over to the pair.

“Walker if you don’t shut him up, I swear to God..,” he threatened, as Sarah looked between the two with desperation.

“Chuck, please,” she urged him to be quiet since he was only making matters worse.

Right now, she could use Casey being calm, something that didn’t exactly come naturally to the NSA agent in the first place. Now someone she was sure he cared about, despite his protestations, was in trouble, and that would hardly be helping his mood. Throw in Chuck making mention of his personal life and Casey was only just keeping the rage inside.

“What? I’m just saying!” said Chuck then, his hands raised in some kind of mock-surrender as Casey turned away and punched at some buttons, checking stats that only he could see on a computer screen. “Y’know he’s awful touchy for a guy who doesn’t care,” added the nerd in a lower voice that he hoped only Sarah took notice of, before raising the volume to continue. “But hey, upside. At least we know Marie is safe. I mean, safe for us,” he clarified. “She’s on our side, right?” he checked, just ever-so-slightly nervous that he might be wrong as he glanced between his two handlers.

“Supposedly,” agreed Sarah, only to receive her turn at the John Casey glare.

“Beckman confirmed Marie’s identity when she was here last time, Walker,” he snapped at her, leaning over the table in such a way as to be threatening, though Sarah did not flinch at all.

“I know that, Casey, but that was almost a year ago,” she pointed out calmly. “Things change, people change,” she said knowingly, and Casey couldn’t deny the woman knew what she was talking about, given her past with one Bryce Larkin.

“What are you saying, Sarah?” Chuck asked her urgently, looking decidedly agitated by all his confusion. “That maybe Marie is a bad guy now?”

“I’m saying we don’t know for sure,” confirmed the CIA agent, her eyes never leaving Casey even as he turned away from her again. “Right now, everybody is a suspect,” she said as she glanced Chuck’s way then. “I’m saying, we can’t rule out the possibility that maybe Marie has gone rogue”

“No way.” Casey’s response was a little too loud and very definite. “There is no way in hell, Walker,” he said pointing an angry finger her way.

“Do you know that for sure, Casey?” Sarah argued her point, getting to her feet and leaning across the table at him. “Or are you just hoping for your own sake?!”

Just when Chuck thought a real nasty fight to the death was about to break out, a voice somewhere behind them caught everyone’s attention, dispensing the angry red mist that had settled everywhere in a second.

“I’m not rogue.” The three words were clear from Marie’s lips though she looked barely able to stand never mind hold a conversation as all three members of Team Bartowski turned to look her way.

She wobbled some as she made to walk towards them and on instinct, Casey moved to help her. Holding up a hand, Marie gently shook her head.

“Stand down, soldier.” She smiled slightly. “I got this,” she told him, changing her mind a moment later as her legs seemed to buckle beneath her, “or maybe not,” she admitted as she sat down rather more quickly than she’d intended in the chair at the end of the table.

“I’m sorry, Marie,” said Sarah, looking genuinely apologetic for her accusations, especially when she was in such a state, “but you have to understand why we’re suspicious. For you to show up here again so suddenly, injured and without explanation.”

“I get it, I do.” The red-head nodded, as she started to get her bearings, “but I’m not rogue, I swear to you,” she said, looking each of the three of them in the eye one by one. “I wouldn’t be in this much trouble if I were.” She smiled wryly, shifting her aching body and finding no one position was any more comfortable than another.

“Rogue agents did this to you?” asked Chuck, turning to Sarah the moment he got a positive nod from Marie. “Well, we can help, right? We can help her, keep her safe here?” His rambling was often aggravating at best and usually started at the most inappropriate moment.

Sarah tried just to get him to shut up a minute so she could think, whilst Marie took the moment with only Casey listening to make an apology to him.

“I didn’t mean to dump all this on you, John,” she told him honestly, as she looked up at him. “I swear when we said goodbye last night and that was supposed to be it. Me riding off into the sunset all on my ownsome, just like I always do.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“You wouldn’t be the first woman made some lame excuse not to leave.” He smirked at her, equal parts annoying and sexy, to the point where she so wished now was a good time for activities than didn’t involve other people in the room.

“This looks like a lame excuse to you?” she asked a little too seriously as she gestured to her gun shot wound.

Casey opened his mouth to answer her, but never got the chance to voice another comment, smart-assed, sweet, or otherwise, as Sarah intervened.

“Hey, I hate to break up the moment but we might have a serious situation here,” she said sharply.

Marie was back on the mission again in a second. “She’s not wrong,” she agreed with a single nod. “So, here’s the big question,” she said as she glanced around the members of Team Bartowksi. “What do you guys know about Fulcrum?”


	4. Chapter 4

“It was never our intention for your work to coincide,” General Beckman told Casey and Sarah who were stood by the screen, with Chuck and Marie who were seated there too. “Agent Clarke’s mission at the hotel ought it have been of no consequence to Team Bartowski.”

“Trust me, ma’am, I would’ve kept my distance if I could,” said Marie, forcing herself not to look Casey’s way even when she felt his gaze shift to her a moment then, “but when things went south...”

“I don’t blame you for seeking help from a source you knew to be safe, Agent Clarke,” the General assured her. “You kept your cover intact for the most part and that is important.” She nodded once. “I understand your mission at the hotel was at least successful.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Marie agreed with a nod. “Despite Mr Al-Hakim’s previous history, he has kept his vow to go straight, and his hotel appears to be an entirely legitimate business enterprise,” she explained. “I planned to be out of there today without a problem, but apparently somebody decided that wasn’t going to happen.”

“Ma’am, Agent Clarke believes the bartender at the hotel may be a Fulcrum agent,” explained Sarah, wanting to move this situation on and get some idea of where to go next with her own mission of keeping Chuck safe. “There’s a chance that other staff or friends of his may be rogue agents too.”

“That’s not what Marie told us,” said Casey, looking mad at his partner and making Chuck feel increasingly uncomfortable.

“Um, General,” he said to Beckman, getting up and between the other two before a fight had the chance to break out. “I think the point has to be that there is at least one Fulcrum agent at the hotel and we need to deal with that so, orders please?” he asked her, glancing nervously between his handlers who both looked ready to draw blood.

“Thank you, Mr Bartowski,” said the General with just a hint of sarcasm at the idea that she might need him to figure this out for her. “Your team will go to the hotel and we will see what you can learn about this bartender or anyone else at the hotel that you would not have seen on your original mission,” she agreed. “In the meantime, I will send a team to extract Agent Clarke,” she continued, even as Marie looked less than impressed at the idea.

“With respect, General,” Casey said carefully, “if Agent Clarke can ID the suspect and be of help to our mission, it seems foolish to take her out. We can protect her,” he assured his boss, practically standing to attention before her, looking equal parts confident and respectful.

General Beckman’s eyes narrowed at his arguing with her, and yet she could see his point. Glancing straight past Marie and Chuck, her eyes settled on Sarah instead.

“Agent Walker, do you agree with Agent Casey’s assessment of the situation?” she asked, curious to see if these two could be together on the important decisions, even if they did have a tendency to fight like cat and dog about the less vital details.

“Yes, ma’am.” Sarah nodded curtly, not sparing a glance for anyone else, and just a little mad at herself for agreeing with Casey - unfortunately, she knew he was right on this one.

“Very well,” the General agreed. “Agent Clarke will resume her previous role as Casey’s girlfriend, and BuyMore employee, if your injury allows,” she asked the still pale red-head who nodded in agreement.

“I’m a fast healer, ma’am,” she assured her, “and the bullet didn’t do much damage, thanks to Agent Casey.”

“Excellent.” The General nodded once, and then the screen went black.

* * *

“Hmm, just like I remember,” said Marie a little too smartly as she wobbled a little whilst walking into Casey’s apartment and flopped down into the recliner.

“Don’t get too comfy,” he warned her. “You’re not staying forever,” he reminded her as he tossed his jacket on the table and turned to tell Walker and Bartowski he’d catch up with them later tonight for the hotel recon.

The door closed in their faces, making the other undercover couple leave perhaps a little faster than they intended. Marie looked up over the back of the chair at her own fake boyfriend that might’ve proved to be the real thing in a different lifetime, when they weren’t both tied to their jobs and all. She tried not to flinch as the stitches in her side pulled tight.

“What’s bugging you, John Casey?” she asked him as he bustled around, pretending to be busy she was sure of it, because she couldn’t think there was a single thing he really needed to be doing right now. “Seriously, what gives? Last night was like...”

“Last night was nothing,” he snapped at her too harshly, though he failed to wound her, hurting her far less than her gun-shot wound as she pulled herself up and walked over to him.

“Hey,” she said sharply, making him look at her as they leaned over on either side of the table. “You can kid yourself that you’re made of stone, Johnny,” she mocked him out of aggravation more than anything else, “but I was there last night, and I am not some stupid little weak-kneed school girl type that’s just gonna...”

Her somewhat angry tirade ended rather more abruptly than she’d intended as Casey’s hand behind her head pulled her closer and his lips crashed against her own in a kiss that took her breath away. Marie honestly wasn’t sure how she got from the other side of the table into his arms, but given the fact standing without dizziness was an issue anyway, she wasn’t going to object to being held up just as long as this moment lasted The fact he seemed to be holding her so tight and yet not causing her any pain was a miracle in itself, and by the time he stopped kissing her, Marie found her head was spinning even more than she’d expected it to. Damn blood-loss and painkillers were screwing with her as much as anything else, to the point where she actually thought she was going to pass out for a minute.

“You still with me, Clarke?” he asked her with that annoyingly sexy smirk that got her every time.

“Not like I can run away too well right now,” she teased him. “Y’know we catch up to the guy that did this to me...” She shook her head, so serious and angry she didn’t have words anymore.

“Trust me, the asshole’s going down,” Casey promised her, and though she knew he would say that about any rogue agent, not just one that had hurt her, it gave Marie a nice feeling inside.

She had a team right now, and that wasn’t a bad thing. She had been a loner too long and got the feeling that maybe Casey felt that way too, at least until Team Bartowski came along. She had no doubt that Sarah and Chuck had a whole lot of opinions about her being back and the pseudo-relationship she and John Casey shared. She was not wrong, as outside in the courtyard the rest of Team Bartowski were talking about just that very topic.

“I just find it weird that Casey has, kind of like, a girlfriend.” Chuck shuddered. “I mean, most of the time he acts like he’s not even person, just like a robot with guns and stuff, but with Marie... I dunno, it’s like he’s really into her.”

“I know what you mean.” Sarah nodded her agreement. “He seems to care so much about her, I just hope it doesn’t jeopardise our work,” she said, all business as usual and reminding Chuck one too many times that they themselves could never really have a romantic relationship, at least not until the Intersect was out of his head.

“So, hotel recon tonight,” he said, changing the subject before things got anymore awkward. “I’m assuming we go as two couples, another double date?” he checked as he let them both into the apartment.

“It makes the most sense,” his handler agreed, as she sat down on the couch and Chuck went into the kitchen to get them both a drink.

Their covert conversation was prevented from continuing as Ellie and Awesome arrived home from the gym together, both still in their work out clothes.

“I’m telling you, babe, there was a definite dirty girl vibe to that chick,” Devon was saying as they came in.

“I can’t believe you were even looking,” she admonished him. “People will say you’re a Peeping Tom or something!”

“Hey guys,” said Chuck, drawing the couples attention to the fact he and Sarah were even there. “What’s the what?” he asked as he walked over and handed Sarah a can of soda, popping his own open too.

Devon flopped down into an armchair and gestured that he was giving Ellie the floor. She put a hand on her brother’s shoulder as she spoke.

“Chuck, would you please tell Devon that who John Casey is or is not dating is absolutely none of our business!” she said, with an exasperated sigh as she looked towards her fiance.

“Dating?” choked the Asset, glad he hadn’t been drinking at the time, else he probably would have sprayed the room with sugary liquid right now.

“The hot little red-heed that was all over him when we just came by?” said Awesome with a raised eyebrow. “Seriously, props to the guy. I was starting to wonder if the bro batted for the other team, if you know what I mean,” he said, giving Sarah a look. “Not that I have anything against it, y’know, gay guys are awesome, I was just a little worried maybe John was getting a little too attached to Chuckles here”

It was then that Sarah nearly did a rather spectacular impression of a fountain. That remark just made her cough, and right when she needed to swallow.

“Hey, yeah," said Chuck as he sat down fast beside her and rubbed her back. “Nope, Casey is straight, straight-arrow, a totally straight girl-liking dude.” He over-did it and he knew he was doing it too, but by the time he noticed it was too late to take back.

“Well, I guess it is sweet that he has a girlfriend now," said Ellie. “Assuming she is, y’know... permanent?” she said awkwardly. “I mean, for all we know, he might like the company of a lot of women for... things.”

“I don’t think Casey is like that," said Sarah with a forced smile. “I’m pretty sure he’s serious about Marie.”

“Marie?” echoed Awesome and Chuck nodded madly.

“Yes, yep, Marie Clarke,” he confirmed. “You remember the girl who worked at the BuyMore with us a while back?” he reminded them. “She’s back in town and those two love birds and have got to... re-kindling things,” he said, his grin too wide and his hand gestures a little too excited for something that ought not to be any of his business.

“Is that what the cool kids are calling it these days?” winked Awesome as he dove out of his chair to go get showered and changed, along with Ellie who was eager to leave this conversation behind anyway.

“Y’know, lying to them never gets any easier," said Chuck when his sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law were gone. “And talking about Casey’s love life really freaks me out,” he added, much to Sarah’s apparent amusement.

She found it weird that her partner might care about another person in that way too, but she also understood why he usually kept himself detached from the world and everyone in it. Sarah knew she would find things a whole lot easier in her life if she could be the same, not only thinking of her relationship with Chuck now but also with Bryce. Romance was hard enough for so-called ordinary people, but for secret agents it was damn near impossible. Sarah wished Casey and Marie both good luck if they could find a little happiness together, however briefly. Of course, she wouldn’t actually tell them that, it would be unprofessional.


	5. Chapter 5

“And Big Mike just let you have your job back, after a year?” asked Chuck as he, Marie, and Casey stuffed their things in their lockers and prepared for their shift.

“What can I say? I’m persuasive.” She shrugged, turning around too much at the same time and immediately regretting the action.

“You sure you can handle this?” Casey checked as he and Chuck caught her with a hand to her bullet wound, wincing some.

“Careful, Casey,” she said, smiling in a second. “Someone might think you care,” she teased him, at which Chuck did his best not to chuckle, at least not until his handler had left the room, slamming the door as he went. “I don’t know how that guy got under my skin," said Marie when he was gone, shaking her head.

“Seriously, are you gonna be okay?” the Asset checked as he fastened his name-tag to his shirt. “I mean, you only got shot yesterday, and...”

“Relax, Chuck, I’m fine,” she assured him. “It’s not the first time someone got a shot at me and I’m guessing it won’t be the last. This is an easy enough job, and if I need any heavy lifting, I’ll yell for back up,” she promised with a smile.

Chuck nodded his understanding and said he’d see her later before leaving to go attend to his Nerd Herd duties. Marie planned to follow just as soon as she’d arranged her locker and all. Unfortunately, she didn’t quite get the chance to escape as Morgan appeared behind her.

“Oh, hey, you must be the new... Marie.” His sentence became disjointed as she turned around to face him and Morgan realised that the well-built red-head was in fact the brunette he had met the year before. “Wow, you look... wow," he gasped out, which made her smile at least.

“I know the hair is a little different, isn’t it? I’m not sure I like it much,” she said, as she ran her hand through her dyed waves. “It’s Malcolm, right?” she made an attempt at his name, but apparently screwed it up, even though the mistake had not been intentional.

“Morgan, actually,” he corrected her, “but hey, it’s fine, not important.” He waved his hands in a nonchalant gesture. “In fact, you should know that Ana and me are like a solid, serious couple now,” he said, clasping his hands together as if to demonstrate how very together he and his girlfriend were.

“Oh, well, that’s good," said Marie, nodding her head, wondering why on Earth she was supposed to care about this bearded little weirdoes love life anyway.

“I just thought you should know,” explained Morgan. “I mean, I wouldn’t want things to be awkward... if you still had feelings for me,” he said, at which Marie bit her lip.

She didn’t want to laugh at him, he seemed to be a decent sort of guy, albeit completely deluded if he thought she had ever looked twice at him! As if her attraction to Casey, both the faking in the beginning and the real later, was not entirely obvious from the start. None of the freaks and geeks at the BuyMore had stood a chance with her, not that she judged on looks so very much, but they barely had a decent personality between all of them as far as she could tell.

“I suppose it’s for the best,” she said as if being brave and fighting disappointment or even tears. “I mean, I think maybe John would be the jealous type, and with he and I getting back together and all...”

“You and John? Casey?” said Morgan, swallowing hard, thinking of all the ways he could die at the larger man’s hands if he stepped on his toes where Marie was concerned. “Yeah, that’s... I gotta go,” he said bolting from the scene and leaving Marie giggling in his wake.

* * *

Marie sighed as she got out back of the BuyMore and leaned her back on the closed door. It wasn’t that the cover job was hard, the past few hours had been the easiest she’d spent in a good while, but the wound in her side was aching some and this whole situation was pretty boring compared to what she was used too. She smiled when she realised that she was not alone.

“You gonna stand there all day just staring, Casey?” she asked, turning her head and fixing him with a look.

“Just wondering what you were doing out here,” he said as he came out from behind the shelving where he’d been working. “It’s not like you’re any use for heavy lifting, at least not right now,” he told her.

“Kinda needed an escape for a while,” she admitted, pushing off the door. “Y’know I liked this job better the first time around, before all the guys were too afraid to talk to me,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Those freaks and geeks are scared of all women,” Casey scoffed. “Wouldn’t know what to do with one if they got her.”

“Unlike some people I could mention," said Marie, licking her lips, breaking the moment just a second later as she moved away from Casey and walked down the lines of shelves, trying to find something to be interested in. “Anyway, it’s not me they’re afraid of,” she explained, as he followed her further into the depths of the storeroom. “Nobody wants to get accused of trying to steal John Casey’s girlfriend away.” She laughed lightly at her own title as she rounded another corner and he followed her still. “I’m not so used to being seen as someone else’s property,” she admitted as she leaned back against the wall.

“Well, can’t say being a ladies man is all that foreign to me,” he told her with a smirk that made her giggle, whether he was telling the truth or not.

“Yep, I’ll bet there are broken hearts from one side of Burbank to the other since you started dating the new red-head in town,” she joked. “Should I be afraid?”

“Nah,” he told her, leaning in closer. “I’ll protect you,” he told her.

“My hero,” she chuckled, as his lips covered hers.

Casey wasn’t entirely sure when this woman got under his skin. He had a feeling it was long before her return, probably within the first hour of meeting her a whole year ago. Not that he was going to tell her any of this, but right now he was almost wishing that when this mission was over she wouldn’t have to leave.

Their would-be make-out session had barely begun, when Chuck’s voice rang out from the doorway, breaking the couple apart in no time at all.

“Casey! Casey!” he yelled, sneakers hammering against the floor as he ran around madly trying to find him. “These guys came into the store, I think they’re from the hotel, I flashed on them and they’re definitely... Fulcrum.” His sentence became disjointed as he rounded the corner and realised that his handler was not alone.

“You idiot," said Casey, wishing he could knock the boy upside his head without potentially causing damage to the Intersect computer.

“Okay, you flashed?” said Marie, looking bemused as Casey turned away from her and Chuck looked terribly sorry and awkward. “What does that even mean?”

Casey looked as if he were about to answer, probably going to make some excuse, a fake explanation for Chuck’s phrasing. He was not given the chance as the Asset was suddenly blurting out all of Team Bartowski’s secrets.

“Okay, the Intersect is in my head, Casey and Sarah are my handlers, and Fulcrum are out to get me,” he said in a rush, even as Casey glared at him with a look that seemed vicious enough to kill him all on its own.

“You’re the human Intersect?” gasped Marie, looking appropriately stunned.

“That’s classified information,” her fake-boyfriend seethed. “Bartowski here has a problem with remembering that.”

“She has to know Casey, she’s part of the team right now!” insisted Chuck.

“Relax, John," said Marie when it became clear he really wanted to pummel the Asset for what he’d just done. “You know you can trust me,” she said, as he glanced her way. “You know you can,” she said again, keeping his gaze, making sure he understood her.

“The point right now is that these Fulcrum guys seem to know you’re here,” Casey told her. “Means they’re dead set on catching up to you.”

“Yup, they’re keeping tabs, alright,” she sighed, “but hey, less of the dead phrases, okay? It’s not great for my confidence,” she confessed.

“Maybe we shouldn’t go to the hotel tonight,” suggested Chuck. “I mean, if they know Marie and they’re after her for some reason, wouldn’t she just be kinda walking into their hands?”

“It’s fine, Chuck,” she insisted. “I’m a big girl, I can handle myself.”

“Yeah.” Casey scoffed. “That’s how come I was pulling a bullet out of you yesterday”

“Well, now I have you watching my back, don’t I?” she challenged. “You seem to think you’re so smart, you can make sure I don’t get anymore holes in this hot bod of mine,” she said, striking a pose with triumphant look on her face.

Neither Casey or Chuck could argue with what she said. She could be annoying as hell, but man, the woman was also so hot, she was off the scale.

* * *

“So, you really think this is going to be safe?” asked Chuck as he and Casey waited in the Castle for the girls to appear. “I mean, the hotel people know Marie, and not just the Fulcrum guys but everybody else, right? She worked there.”

“It’s not a problem, Chuck,” his handler insisted, checking a gun before hiding it in the holster beneath the jacket of his smart suit. “Maids don’t exactly mingle with the guests enough to get recognised, and if we run into any staff that recognise her, we’ll handle it.”

“Sure we will," said Marie then as she and Sarah came down the stairs, catching the tail-end of the guys conversation. “JLo managed it. I mean, you have seen Maid in Manhatten, right?”

“Oh, I loved Ralph Fiennes in that," said Sarah with a smile, though neither Casey nor Chuck were listening anymore, only staring at the beauty before them.

Sarah never failed to impress her fake boyfriend, no matter what she wore, but there was something about the little black number that was guaranteed to make any man’s jaw drop. Chuck was absolutely speechless as he took in the short backless dress that showed of Sarah’s every curve, but then that wasn’t so very strange. What was perhaps more interesting was that Casey seemed similarly struck dumb by the sight of Marie, who had apparently decided she liked her hair better the way it used to be and was back to the dark brown she’d had last year. Her fine body was hugged in a red glittery affair, cut slanted so one side didn’t even show her knee but the other left a lot less to the imagination.

Tonight was going to be an interesting night, that much was entirely obvious.

_One hour later..._

“No flashes yet, Chuck?” asked Sarah in a whisper as they stood in one corner of the room, sipping champagne.

“Nope, not a thing,” he sighed, looking around at anyone who may appear suspicious and in particular the waiting staff and bar tenders.

His eyes kept straying away from the point of the mission, that he had to confess. It was still strange to see Casey acting like he cared about anyone but himself. Of course, Chuck was still wondering exactly how much of this whole couple thing with Casey and Marie was acting and how much was real. He may be the only one amongst them who wasn’t a real spy, but he could pick up on clues and put together the facts just as well as anyone else. He saw the spark between those two, and it was real, he was certain.

“What are you staring at, Bartowski?” asked Casey, suddenly a little closer than Chuck had realised.

“Did you flash, Chuck?” checked Sarah as the four moved out of ear shot of any of the other guests or staff.

“No, nope, no flashes.” He shook his head grinning too much and making Casey wonder what the joke was, though he didn’t bother asking.

“I haven’t seen anyone familiar either,” added Marie as she looked around. “So, I guess this night is kind of a bust.”

“Well, I don’t know," said Chuck, surveying the scene. “At least we got fancy party invites out of this, a chance to dress up, go out, have a little fun,” he said, toasting a good time and feeling a little silly when nobody else joined in. “Nevermind.” He rolled his eyes as he bought his glass to his lips and finished off his drink.

Turning around to put said glass down on the tray of a passing waiter, Chuck got an all too familiar feeling that sent him reeling back, just enough to bump Casey who growled as he caught the Asset before he fell.

“Woah, that one took me by surprise,” he said, shaking his head some as he righted himself, glad no-one seemed to have noticed his black-out, except for his team.

“That was a flash, right?” Marie checked as they moved out of the room and out into the emptier corridor.

“Chuck, what did you see?” asked Sarah softly, mindful that they still might be overheard even here.

“The waiter, he’s Fulcrum, and he’s looking for you,” he told Marie, quickly recovering from the shock of a sudden flash. “In fact, he knows you’re here and I’m pretty sure as soon as we try to leave there are some guys who are gonna make sure we don’t,” he said worriedly, looking between Sarah and Casey for some kind of idea or plan - neither looked confident right now.

“Do you think they knew we were coming here tonight?” asked a confused Marie, wondering how she had got caught up in all this.

“How would they?” said Casey, before considering it. “How did they know you were at the BuyMore too?”

“Could they have put a bug on you?” asked Chuck, thinking it could happen, after all he was constantly in Casey and Sarah’s sight via his special watch. “A tracking device, like a GPS tag?” he suggested, at which Marie looked a little mad.

“I think I would’ve noticed that. Hello? Spy here!” she said a little too loudly, pointing at herself emphatically.

It was at this moment that Sarah had a realisation. With so much going on in her head, it wasn’t exactly strange that it had taken her so long to notice. Besides, what she had just spotted on Marie’s wrist had originally been worn around her neck.

“Is this the pendant Casey gave you last time you were here?” she asked, grabbing at the other young woman’s hand and showing her own wrist to her as well as the guys.

“Uh, yeah, I guess.” Marie looked just a little embarrassed as she glanced sideways at Casey and then looked back at Sarah. “It’s always on me some place,” she admitted.

“At least now we know how they’re tracking you.” Casey sighed, trying to concentrate on the business at hand and not so much on the fact that this girl had kept his gift to her all this time.

“There’s a GPS in the pendant," said Sarah quickly, looking round to ensure the waiter from before was not around or listening in at all. “We didn’t know if we could trust you before,” she explained as Marie began trying to get the bracelet off her wrist.

“Damn!” she cursed when it took more effort than she would like, eventually forcing it off over her hand and dropping it into Sarah’s own.

“I’m gonna go deal with this,” the blonde said quietly. “Casey, you find a safe exit route, get Marie and Chuck out of here,” she told him, at which he nodded his easy agreement to her plan.

Walking quickly away to the ladies room with an idea of how to really throw the Fulcrum agents off Marie’s scent, Sarah glanced back just once to see Casey, Marie and Chuck headed in the other direction down the corridor. Of course, she had no idea what they were saying.

“Why’d you still have that thing anyway?” Casey asked Marie, referring to the necklace she had clearly managed to keep a hold of all this time, albeit in a different form these days.

Marie shrugged, and turned away as if checking they weren’t being followed. Her answer took a few moments to come and when it did, it surprised Casey more than he thought it would as she smiled genuinely up at him;

“Some people you just don’t wanna forget.”


	6. Chapter 6

Sarah had been biting her tongue too long and she wasn’t willing to do so any more. Lately, every time she and Casey were in the same room, Marie and Chuck were there too, the former of which she still wasn’t entirely comfortable talking frankly in front of. Sure, she was a temporary member of Team Bartowski, that was necessary and part of their orders from Beckman, but that didn’t mean Sarah Walker entirely trusted the other young woman.

That aside, Marie Clark presented another problem for their team. Despite her original reason for being in Burbank and the resulting report stating that Casey was undistracatble, Sarah didn’t so much trust that was still true. She had wondered about Casey and his thoughts on women. He made no move on her or any other female that she had seen, except for Carina, but then she had always been a force to be reckoned with. When Marie came along, things seemed to change, and for perhaps the first time since she’d met him, Sarah saw a human being when she looked at John Casey and not just a blood-thirsty NSA Agent. This time around, he seemed to have got in even deeper with Marie and all in a matter of a couple of days.

There was no doubt in Sarah Walker’s mind that Casey’s relationship with the Trouble Shooter could easily lead to the mission being compromised. It seemed Marie already knew about Chuck being the human Intersect, and the chances were good that Fulcrum were counting on that, hence the fact they were after her in the first place. Sarah had experience of getting too close to a partner. Her and Bryce had been such a disaster, and she wasn’t about to watch Casey and Marie have similar problems, especially not if it meant risking Chuck in the process. Now seemed like the perfect time to get her point across, as she and Casey waited alone in the Castle for a conference with Beckman. Chuck was having some family time with Ellie and Awesome, helping out with wedding plans, and Marie had a shift at the BuyMore. There was never going to be a better opportunity than this.

“Casey,” she said suddenly, making him look up fast from the file he’d been reading on the opposite side of the table. “This is a little awkward to say,” she admitted, “but... you do know you have to be careful with Marie, right?”

“What exactly are you getting at, Walker?” he asked, flipping shut the folder on the table before him and folding his hands together. “’Cause if this is a safe sex talk, I’m pretty well informed,” he told her with a smug smirk that made Sarah want to hit him - again!

“You know exactly what I mean,” she snapped. “Seriously, Casey, I’ve been there,” she told him with a look. “When I was with Bryce...”

“Your being in love with that idiot has nothing to do with me and Marie,” he cut in immediately. “I’m not in school-girl love with her, Walker, we just get along is all.”

“I get along with a lot of people, Casey, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to sleep with them all,” she said cuttingly, at which her partner grit his teeth.

He so didn’t want to have this conversation with her, or with anyone, truth be told. It was one up on Bartowski questioning him on feelings he was pretty sure he didn’t have, and wouldn’t share if he did, but that didn’t make Walker’s chosen topic of conversation any less annoying in the long run.

“What I do in my private time is none of your damn business,” he said definitely as he got up from the table and walked away, sure if he didn’t he would lose his cool and things would end very badly, especially with Beckman due to appear on the vid link screen at any moment.

“I wouldn’t care if I thought you two were just having some fun," said Sarah, her hands slamming against the table as she stood up angrily, “but I know there is more to it than that, Casey,” she said crossly, as he turned slowly and stared at her. “Do you love her?”

“What? You think because you fall for every guy you have to work close to that I can’t help myself either?” he said, obviously speaking of Chuck as well as Bryce. “You’re deluded, Walker,” he assured her. “Me and Agent Clarke are having a little fun is all,” he told her, trying to be serious and definite in his response and yet Sarah wondered why when his gaze met hers she still couldn’t quite believe him.

“I wonder if you could define this fun you’re having, Agent Casey?” said another voice and both Agents immediately snapped to attention, their eyes fixed on the screen before them that bore an image of a clearly annoyed General Beckman.

“Agent Clark and I get along well, General," said Casey easily. “Enjoy each others company and all. Nothing more than that,” he lied through his teeth and Sarah was so tempted to say so.

She knew it would do no good. Getting her partner in trouble with their boss was not good for the Team, and though she didn’t doubt Casey would take a similar opportunity against her, she would not stoop so low.

For General Beckman, this whole situation bothered her. She had thought Agent Casey to be one of the best in the organisation, and indeed he had proven to be so. The only concern anyone had about his ability to protect the Asset was the way in which he had been distracted by certain women before now. It had been Marie herself that submitted the report and necessary evidence to prove that this was no longer an issue, that she had failed to keep Casey from his work despite her best efforts. That being the truth, and Beckman had to trust the Trouble Shooter enough to believe that it was, then there was nothing to worry about.

“Very well,” she said, regardless of the fact she didn’t entirely believe what she was being told here. “There is a much larger issue at hand,” she told the two stood before her. “Thanks to Chuck’s flashes yesterday we have been able to identify the Fulcrum agents looking for Agent Clark,” she explained, putting up photographs of three men, complete with real and code names beneath them.

Agents Walker and Casey took in the information they were being shown as well as what Beckman was telling them about the trio.

“They’re strictly operatives, only good for field work,” she explained. “Capturing them would do us no good and disposing of them would only mean replacements could arrive right after they were gone,” she said seriously.

“Do we know why they’re after Marie?” asked Sarah then. “I mean, she didn’t even know about Chuck being the Intersect.”

“We have to assume they believe she is somehow connected to the Intersect," said Beckman. “No doubt because she was assigned to monitor Casey last year.”

“They figured I had a reason for putting a tracker on her and they used to it to keep tabs til they were ready to pounce," said Casey through gritted teeth, mad at himself for making this situation worse for Marie, however unwittingly.

“It may have been wise to inform Agent Clark about the tracker you placed on her after her mission was complete,” agreed Beckman. “But it is far too late to worry about these past actions now, Casey,” she informed him. “All we can do is concentrate on the issue at hand, which is this,” she went on to explain. “These three operatives must have a leader, a person they report back to.”

“Maybe it’s the hotel boss, Al-Hakim?” suggested Sarah as she thought back over what they knew so far. “That’s who Marie was here to investigate, and he does have a history.”

“No, Mr Al-Hakim has been thoroughly checked out and we are confident he is on the straight and narrow these days," said Beckman definitely. “Agent Clarke’s evidence was conclusive.”

“Then who are we looking for?” asked Casey, almost rhetorically, since nobody was likely to be able to answer such a question, at least not yet.

* * *

“I think you’ll find working here an... interesting experience.” Emmett Millbarge over-did the introduction to the BuyMore as he showed the Burbank branch’s newest employee around. “We don’t have too many other female staff but, ah, here is a friend for you.” He grinned too much as they almost literally ran into Marie. “Suzy Anderson meet Marie Clarke, our only other female salesperson.”

“Nice to meet you," said the brunette, holding out her hand to the obviously older woman, who shook it with a tight smile.

“Likewise,” she responded, and Emmett seemed thrilled, practically clapping his hands with joy as he suggested Marie show Suzy how things worked around the BuyMore.

Though the two women in green shirts smiled politely at each other, something wasn’t right and Marie knew it. There was just an air about this women, a vibe she was giving off that made the Trouble Shooter glad she had a gun hidden on her even now. Not that this chick was likely to try anything on the sales floor of a huge store, but there were all kinds of opportunities for her to cause trouble if she wanted to, and Marie was going to be ready for her.

“So," said Suzy looking around at the store. “Where do we start?”

“Well, that all depends,” replied Marie, a frown forming on her face as she spotted a strange mark on her new colleagues neck. “Wow, that’s quite a scar,” she said, as if astonished by the sight of it, when in reality she had seen such marks a million times of course.

“Oh, yeah.” Suzy’s hand immediately went to her neck, pulling at her hair to cover the ever present white line that marred her tanned flesh. “It happened years ago, a really stupid accident.” She shook her head, a light laugh escaping her throat.

Still, Marie wasn’t going to let it go. Most ordinary, normal people didn’t have what looked like a knife scar running down the side of their neck, especially not women. Sure, there could be a logical explanation, but coupled with the suspicions Marie already had about Ms Anderson, she just wasn’t buying.

“Well, we all have accidents,” she said with a smile, “but that must have been a doozy. I mean, I’m such a clutz and the worst I ever did was fall on a cigarette,” she said, revealing a small round scar at the top of her arm. “Last one I ever smoked though, so it did me some good.” She rolled her eyes as she expertly told her lie.

To her credit, Suzy (if that was even her real name) didn’t flinch or really show any sign she didn’t believe Marie or was lying herself as they walked across the store.

“This is worse than it looks,” she explained. “Just a little kitchen mishap, I really shouldn’t even try to cook. One minute I’m chopping vegetables the next I’m reaching for the first aid box,” she said with a girlish giggle that didn’t suit her, before hastily changing the subject. “So, how long have you worked here, Marie?”

Though the undercover agent answered the question and smiled in what looked like a genuine way, her mind was racing at a mile a minute with possibilities. There was no way in hell this woman accidentally cut herself with a kitchen knife. To have a scar as clean as hers, somebody had very deliberately put that line on her, there was not a doubt in Marie’s mind. Sure, she could be embarrassed about some domestic abuse or similar, but Marie couldn’t shake the fact that something more sinister than that was going on here. Maybe she was just a cynic given her line of work, maybe it was because she knew danger lurked around every corner for her right now. Still, there was every chance her hunch was right and this woman was way more dangerous than she seemed. If that was true, Marie was almost glad they’d been paired up, at least that way she would be able to keep an eye on this Suzy character, and could ensure she was not a threat to anyone else at the BuyMore.


	7. Chapter 7

Trouble Shooter Agent Marie Clarke felt almost domestic as she headed through the gates into the courtyard where Casey’s apartment was. She had just completed a Saturday morning’s work and was now coming home, carrying a paper bag of groceries with one arm, swinging the other happily like she had not a care in the world. She wondered sometimes, not often but sometimes, how her life might’ve turned out different had she never become an agent. If this were all real, right now she could kinda like it, working at the BuyMore, having friends to talk to and laugh with, coming home to a man she could love.

That last thought hit her right between the eyes, so hard that she actually stopped walking a second. Marie didn’t love much, like all secret agents she knew it was the cardinal rule not to ever fall, and yet there was something about John Casey that had completely turned her head. He was hot, that was the obvious part, and the whole playing hard to get thing only made her want him all the more, but it was more than that. More than the physical and more than the wanting what she couldn’t have. There were times when he was thoughtful, and when he could be so sweet. He hated to be told that, but it was true enough, and though she joked her way through this semi-fake relationship, it was going to hurt when she had to walk away for the final time.

Shaking her head free of such serious thoughts, Marie walked up to the front door, remembering she was not allowed to have a key and sighing heavily. She knocked on the door, knowing the secret camera she had already spotted would now be trained on her face.

“Hi honey, I’m home,” she said cheerily into the lens as if she were the perfect little housewife or something.

“Hilarious,” said Casey flatly as he let her inside, practically growling at her for even attempting to be amusing.

Marie rolled her eyes as she took her bag of groceries to the kitchen and dumped it on the counter.

“Seriously, John, the gears in your sense of humour could use an overhaul,” she told him as she came back, leaning in the doorway as she stared at him. “Still, that’s a small price to pay when the chassis looks that good and the engine runs so well,” she told him, licking her lips in such a way as to start something here.

Marie knew precisely what she was doing and was highly aware that despite his attempts to fight it, there was a huge attraction between Casey and herself. Like they hadn’t proved that the first night they were reunited! Since then, he tried to be cold with her, tried to pretend he didn’t care and she did understand why. When she left, he didn’t want to have to miss her, didn’t want to feel her loss. Yes, Marie understood that, but she refused to live her life denying herself any feelings, of anything good, just so she didn’t have to deal with the bad. Life wasn’t worth living if you didn’t feel at all.

Of course, now was not exactly the perfect time for working up a sweat in the bedroom, they actually did have more important things to attend to. This was why, as she pushed off the door and walked across the room, despite Casey’s expectations for her to do otherwise, she completely bypassed him and headed to the bedroom alone, saying she was going to change out of her work clothes.

He almost considered asking her if she needed help, but that would lead to no good. Actually, it would lead to something very, very good, but not entirely appropriate. Casey had to keep reminding himself this was all a temporary arrangement, and he couldn’t afford to get too comfortable. He busied himself in the kitchen deliberately, putting away the groceries, though he had an ear open and listening when Marie began talking again from the bedroom.

“So, I met a new girl at work today,” she told him. “She seems nice enough,” she continued as she emerged, sans green shirt and a lot more besides.

“Yeah, so?” Casey answered vaguely, not even turning around to glance her way.

Marie stood in the doorway watching him buzz around the room, trying his best to ignore her apparently.

“Emmett made a big deal about pairing us up, the only two female greens shirts and all,” she went on. “She seems cool - smart, interesting, funny... a Fulcrum Agent,” she added as if it were just normal words she was saying, but it turned out her agent partner really was listening as he turned sharply to face her, his eyes going a little wide. “Yeah, I thought that might get your attention.” She grinned, unable to help herself, because honestly she wasn’t just talking about the words she said.

In an attempt to stay cool on what had turned into a fairly warm day, she now wore just a vest top and jean shorts that thoroughly earned their title. It took Casey a moment to recover and then he spoke seriously.

“You know this woman is Fulcrum?” he asked, apparently not finding the situation in any way funny.

Whilst Marie could understand why he wouldn’t, she had a reason for making jokey comments and such, and Casey ought to have known what it was. For whatever reason, these jerks were out to get her, and if their shooting at her was anything to go by they didn’t seem to care much if she stayed alive or not. Better to crack a joke or two, she figured, than spend her life living in abject fear.

“I don’t know for sure,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “I’m not the one with an Intersect in my head, but something wasn’t right about her," said Marie definitely as Casey moved past her, grabbing up a laptop and sitting down with it.

Marie perched herself on the arm of the chair, looking over his shoulder at whatever he was doing, watching with wide eyes as he linked up to the system in the bunker they called the Castle. In moments, a database was opening up on the screen, a hundred or more thumbnail pictures spinning across in front of her eyes.

“Give me a description,” Casey practically ordered her and in such a situation as this Marie felt it best not to argue, after all this was for the mission, no time for messing around.

“Caucasian, mid-blonde hair to the shoulders, my height so five eight or so, but older, estimate around thirty five to forty,” she rattled off the description like a well-oiled machine, watching avidly as Casey punched in details, whittling the field down one piece at a time.

By the end they had just six mug shots left on the computer screen and he duly passed the laptop over to Marie who looked carefully at each of them. It was the fifth one that made her smile.

“Bingo,” she said definitely, showing Casey the face of the woman she had helped train a the BuyMore today. “That’s her, you can’t miss the scar,” she pointed out, “though it looks as if our Ms Jennifer Hart is telling a few untruths. She was Suzy Anderson when I met her today,” she noted.

“And apparently Starlight to her Fulcrum buddies,” he noted the codename tagged onto her profile.

“Okay, so...” Marie began formulating a plan but Casey was already one step ahead, shutting down the computer fast and getting up, grabbing Marie’s hand as he did so. “Easy, Johnny,” she urged him. “I could use not bleeding all over the carpet right now,” she winced as his twisting her around so fast pulled at her bullet wound.

“Sorry,” he muttered, looking at least genuinely apologetic as he encouraged her more gently towards the door. “You wanna come meet the neighbours?” he asked her, one eye-brow raised and a half-smile on his face that made her wonder if he was so averse to playing games as he sometimes made out.

“Sure,” she nodded her agreement, walking past him and out of the door, not minding at all that Casey apparently intended to introduce her to Chuck’s family as his girlfriend, his hand holding on tight to her own.

It was all supposed to be an act, another part to play like so many others from before, but this particular role had Marie grinning. She planned to enjoy herself with this, she had quite decided on it, as Casey knocked on the Bartowskis’ front door. It was Devon who answered it.

“Hey, John,” he smiled too much for Casey’s liking, “and... John’s friend,” he said a little awkwardly.

Devon noted that whoever this was appeared to be a different girl to the one he’d seen his neighbour with before. Of course, he hadn’t got a great view of her then, but she had different coloured hair and such, so it seemed Casey may have traded girlfriends in the space of a few days.

“Hi.” Marie smiled politely, looking up at Casey to make introductions which he duly did.

“Devon, this is Marie Clarke, my girlfriend,” he said, sounding oddly convincing. “Marie this is Chuck’s brother-in-law, Devon,” he told the two, seeing some kind of relief cross Awesome’s face, though he had no idea why.

“Soon-to-be brother-in-law,” he said quickly, offering to shake the brunette’s hand. “Don’t wanna jinx it.” He grinned at which they all laughed appropriately. “Geez, my manners are just...” He shook his head then. “Please, come in,” he encouraged, looking the girl over as she walked by him.

Maybe she dyed her hair, since she had the same name that Chuck had told them before. It made Devon pleased to think John Casey had a steady girlfriend, and not least because it confirmed he was not into the dude-on-dude thing in the direction of Chuck!

“Hi John," said Ellie brightly as she spotted him from the kitchen, not noticing the way her brother’s eyes shot up from what he was doing to help her, almost cutting his finger off with the sharp knife meant for the julienning salad vegetables for lunch.

“Sweetie.” Devon smiled as he crossed the room to bring her out from behind the counter. “John brought his girlfriend to meet us,” he told her, making the necessary introductions.

Marie smiled and shook the other woman’s hand, though she never left Casey’s side. She gripped his hand and very deliberately leant into him, liking the feeling that came with being a special someone to a guy like him. Not since High School had Marie felt like this, certainly not since she’d been recruited to the CIA’s special division of Trouble Shooters. Of course she loved her job, but it was times like this she almost wished she was a normal girl... almost.

“So, how did you two meet?” asked Ellie with interest as they all moved to sit down, Casey and Marie practically being forced to join her on the couch, whilst Devon took an arm chair and Chuck hovered around nervously.

“I told you,” he said too fast. “I told you they met at the BuyMore, last year, when Marie was here,” he said, forcing a laugh as he got to tell his sister and Awesome the truth for a change.

“Thank you, Chuck," said Ellie, peering over the back of the couch at him, “but I was actually talking to John and Marie”

“Well, I just think it’s awesome.” Devon enthused. “You two, young love, reunited after a year and all.” He grinned too much, and though Casey seemed jut a little uncomfortable with it, Marie was having a whale of a time.

“Yes, how did that happen, Marie?” asked Ellie curiously with definite emphasis on the name of the person she wanted an answer from as her eyes went north and glared some at her brother.

“Well, I always intended to come back to Burbank,” she lied like the pro she was. “Then on like my third day here I ran into John and... what can I say?” she shrugged as she turned to gaze at her man. “I fell in love all over again.”

“Aaw that’s so adorable.” Ellie was practically squealing with delight at the whole thing, but honestly, Casey barely heard her.

Marie Clarke had to be one hell of an actress, it went with the job, but it was more than that and he wasn’t so stupid he didn’t see it. When she looked in his eyes that way with that particular smile on her face, it was hard to think she was anything but a girl in love. With a very deliberate wink in his direction, she then went back to talking to Ellie.

“So, Chuck was telling me that you and Devon here are getting married,” she said, as girly as she’d ever been in her life. “I’ll bet you’re all excited.”

“That and stressing out.” Ellie rolled her eyes. “I mean I so want to be married to you,” she said, looking at Devon, her hand going to his knee, “but arranging a wedding, it’s really not that simple.”

“Well, if you need any help, you can always call,” her new-found friend assured her. “For a second opinion on flowers or something, or just a friend to share a bottle of wine with when your brain is melting from the pressure,” she offered kindly.

“Thank you, that is so sweet.” Ellie smiled gratefully as Casey almost scoffed at the lies free-falling out of his supposed girlfriend’s mouth.

Of course, an elbow in the ribs reminded him to behave, and Casey soon realised why she Marie was doing all this, what she was leading up to. The wink she’d shot him wasn’t designed to just be sexy or whatever, it was to tell him she had a plan and to just let her go with it.

“Y’know every girl has this dream of what her wedding is going to be,” she told the boys, “but when you get there, it’s never that simple, right, Ellie?”

“Oh, that is so true,” she agreed. “I mean, I always thought a few friends and family on the beach, a simple ceremony, y’know? But in the end, it was more practical to have a church wedding.”

“I guess I understand that.” Marie nodded. "For me, I’d want to be out in the open. Sunset on the steps of some fancy house in the countryside or something. Dancing the first dance in the _starlight_ ,” she said pointedly, glancing up at Chuck as his eyes flickered madly.

“That’s my girl," said Casey so softly that only Marie heard as she leant back against him - it made her smile anyway.

“You okay, Chuckles?” asked Devon, apparently having seen Chuck flash and not understanding what was going on.

“Er, yeah, sure.” He nodded, gripping onto the back of the couch too hard as he fought to keep his balance. “I was just thinking... about Sarah,” he said, managing to put together a lie pretty quick these days after so much practice. “Yeah, because me and Sarah were going out tonight and I was thinking maybe Marie and Casey wanted to make it a double-date,” he said pointedly.

“Oh, well, we were thinking of having a quiet night in, weren’t we, honey?” she said with a sly smile as she turned around and planted a kiss on her ‘boyfriend’ that he so wasn’t expecting.

“I guess we could go out first, sweetheart,” he played her at her own game. “We have all night for whatever else we wanna do,” he teased her, his hand moving along her thigh and making her momentarily forget what the hell she was doing.

Neither of them paid any mind to Chuck shuddering with disgust at the pair of them and their plans to do what he knew they were planning to do later! They only bothered to look his way when he spoke up, regarding the date tonight which was clearly a cover.

“So, I was thinking, we’ll meet at the Orange Orange after work, I can fill you guys in on our plans,” he said cryptically. “I think you’re going to love this place we’re headed, its where all the important people are,” he said very deliberately.

“Oh, is it that hotel we were talking about before?” asked Marie, apparently obvious enough that Chuck understood whilst easily keeping Ellie and Awesome in the dark.

“Nope, definitely not there,” he shook his head. “That place was just a mistake.”

“It’s a shame we’re both working tonight.” Ellie sighed, looking to her fiancé. “I could of used a night out with friends.”

With that she got up and made her excuses to go back to the kitchen, and Devon duly followed to lend a hand, finally leaving the three agents alone together. Chuck practically vaulted the back of the couch to sit down with Casey and Marie, whispering the details he had seen in his head to them.

“Starlight is Jennifer Hart, the handler for the guys at the hotel,” he explained quickly.

“But the hotel’s not the cover?” said Casey, sure that was what Chuck had implied but not entirely sure if that’s what the idiot had meant, since it was Chuck after all!

“No, that was just to get to Marie,” he explained, glancing over to make sure his sister and Awesome were not listening at all. “They have a warehouse down by the docks,” he told them. “And they’re getting pretty damn serious about tracking Marie.”

That fact was already obvious, of course, but hearing it said really didn’t make Agent Clarke feel too good. What she perhaps didn’t realise was how much it bothered Casey too, but then he wasn’t likely to tell her that, it just wasn’t his way.


	8. Chapter 8

“Hey, sweetie," said Sarah with a smile as she walked up to the Nerd Herd counter and leant over to kiss Chuck’s lips.

“Hey,” he replied in kind, with an over-done grin as he glanced sideways at Jeff and Lester. “Er, I kinda need to talk to you...” he said, running around to her side and ushering her towards the entertainment suite.

With the door shut and the blinds drawn so no-one could see them, Chuck looked panicked as he turned to face Sarah. She was as calm as ever, in spite of the fact she knew everything he was about to try and tell her.

“Chuck, breathe,” she told him, before he had a chance to start up rambling. “I know all about the Fulcrum Agent and the location she and her operatives are hiding out at," she assured him. “I was headed over to the apartment to check in with you; Casey and Marie called me into his place and told me everything.”

“Oh my God, Sarah, I have been thinking about this all afternoon," said Chuck, running his hand back over his hair. “What if Starlight, that woman, what if she thinks Marie is the Intersect and hurts her because of that? It’d be my fault!”

“Right now you should be glad if they suspect Marie,” his handler told him seriously as he sat down hard on the couch with his head in his hands. “If they do, then at least that means they’re no threat to you, Chuck.”

“Sarah, how can you say that?” he asked her seriously. “I mean, yeah, I see your point but Marie is like our friend, and Casey...” He shook his head. “I don’t know exactly what’s between those two but it is not the seething hatred he usually has for everyone else, that’s for sure.”

Sarah sighed as she took a seat beside Chuck. He was such a good person, he really was not cut out to be a spy. Rather than worry about his own safety being comprised, he was concerned for another who might suffer because of what he was. As for the situation with Casey and Marie, Agent Walker had made her feelings on that topic very clear to her partner, though it seemed to have done no good at all.

“So, are we clear on tonight’s mission?” she asked, much more comfortable with a change of subject right now.

“Sure, yeah.” Chuck nodded absently, still stuck on his feeling bad about Marie and wondering on the whole deal between her and Casey. “You guys will go in, the whole cover of darkness thing, and I’ll probably just stay in the car.” After all, that was pretty much how missions usually went down.

Honestly, the staying put and out of danger did sound good these days, after the injuries he’d sustained trying to be a hero like Cole a couple of weeks ago.

“Okay, so...” Sarah started to say something as she stood up, but stopped abruptly as a beep emanated from her pocket.,

Pulling out her cell, the frown on her face had Chuck worried in an instant.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, standing up beside her and peering over her shoulder.

The click of a couple of buttons took them from some kind of alarm warning screen to a live feed into the Castle where Marie was stood.

“How’d she get in there?” asked Sarah, mostly rhetorically, though Chuck answered anyway.

“I guess Casey let her in,” he said simply, now a lot less worried than he had been a moment ago when the beeping alarm had sounded. “Why does she bother you so much?” he asked when Sarah continued to frown.

“She doesn’t,” Agent Walker confirmed as she pushed her cell back into her pocket. “What bothers me is she may yet compromise our mission,” she explained. “You know how Casey is with her, different to how he’s ever been with any other woman. It concerns me that he’ll lose sight of the point of our work while she’s around,” she admitted.

“I guess Agents dating each other has its issues," said Chuck with a knowing look.

It was hard enough for him being totally in love with his cover girlfriend, but at least they got to be together in some small way. This mission with Marie would only last so long. When the bad guys were dealt with, she was probably going to have to leave town again, just like the last time. The chances of her coming back again were slim to none.

Sarah wasn’t sure what to say, just nodded her head in agreement with what Chuck had said. She certainly had plenty of experience of falling for the wrong guy. Her and Bryce had been such a team; partners, lovers, and fighters. She hadn’t looked for a happily ever after, because in some ways she thought she’d already found it. Of course, fate proved her wrong, and now it had landed her here with a very different but no less wonderful guy. She loved Chuck, in what way exactly she would not allow herself to ponder on, but he meant so much. In another life, a different time, maybe they would have been a couple, but it wasn’t so. He was the Asset, she was his Handler. There could be nothing else, not now, and possibly not ever, how ever much it hurt to admit it to herself.

“Y’know it’s weird," said Chuck, shaking his head sadly. “Last time Marie was here, I was so sure that I’d have the Intersect out of my head before long. Now it’s like a year later, she’s back, and everything is still crazy, kind of spiralling out of control.”

“Only if we let it," said Sarah firmly, her hand on his arm. “Chuck, I can’t tell you how everything is going to turn out, but I can promise to always do my job and protect you any way I can,” she swore to him. “One way or another, we’ll come through all this, and hopefully we can get your life back for you,” she told him with a smile.

He returned the look, his eyes meeting hers, that overwhelming urge to kiss her surging through his body as it so often did. If only it were so simple, if only life was so like a fairytale, and he could kiss her and they could live happily ever after. Real life didn’t work that way, certainly not at the moment, and maybe it never would, but Charles Bartowksi had hope, and that was enough for now.

* * *

Casey had come in via one of the back doors to the Castle, planning on getting prepared for tonight, cleaning up his guns and such. His stealthy entrance, whether deliberate or not, caught Marie off-guard since she was so concentrated on trying to re-dress her bullet wound that had been bleeding again.

“What are you doing down here?” he asked too suddenly, making her jump.

“Geez, Casey!” she complained, dropping the medical tape she had been trying to fasten her dressing with. “Lurk much?” she accused him as she crouched down to retrieve the tape.

Without a word, but with an expected sigh and eyeroll, Casey walked over to Marie, taking the tape from her and knocking her hands aside. It was much easier just to let him help her, and Marie couldn’t help but shiver as his fingers brushed her skin. She closed her eyes a moment and forced herself not to lose it right now, she couldn’t afford to do anything but concentrate.

“You didn’t tell me how you got down here," said Casey as he finished the job and stood straight, walking back to the table and putting away the medical supplies.

“Thanks,” she said gratefully, pulling her top back down over her wound. “Sarah let me in,” she explained, at which Casey only nodded once as he disappeared from her sight a moment.

Marie let out an exasperated kind of a sigh. She was wound up like a coiled spring and she hated it. She needed a release, a chance to relax before things got worse, which they were certainly going to. It might’ve been easier if Casey would just talk to her, about anything, but it just wasn’t him. He liked his laconic ways, his brooding hero type style, and Marie had to agree that it worked for him. Part of the attraction was having to work for the prize, but right now Marie didn’t feel like she had a lot of time to be wasting.

She carefully hopped up to sit on the counter, leaning back against the wall and watching Casey select weapons out of the cabinet, laying them out on the table.

“So,” she tried once more to make conversation. “I guess you’re pretty much ready for tonight, right?” she asked, sure she knew the answer but just trying to get him to do something that was not ignoring her.

“I’m always ready,” he said sparing her a glance, a smirk he couldn’t help as he added. “I was born ready.”

Marie smiled at that, unable to help herself, as she hopped to her feet.

“I would have thought,” she said, getting in his path and his personal space as he tried to get by her, “that born to be wild was more your style,” she teased him, an eyebrow raised and a kind of unspoken challenge being set.

He could just pick her up and move her aside if he wanted to, they both knew that. The question became, was he going to, or more than that perhaps, did he want to? The way he was looking at her right now told Marie he really didn’t, and she certainly didn’t want him to reject her right now. They both knew they didn’t have long together before this mission was over, one way or another. Once they parted it’d be too late, their paths might never cross again, it certainly seemed unlikely.

“I’m not playing games with you,” he told her, making to side step her but she anticipated that and followed his move, her hands on his chest as she looked up at him.

“Who’s playing?” she said too seriously. “C’mon, John, live a little,” she urged him.

“We’ve got work to do tonight,” he reminded her, though the thought already occurred that he was probably fighting a losing battle with her.

It wasn’t just that Marie was attractive, not that it hurt that she was, as Bartowksi would say, ‘a hottie’. She had a way about her, something he couldn’t explain but that he couldn’t resist either. There wasn’t much in the world that tempted John Casey away from his work, and he’d never admit it to anyone else if there was. In his own head, at least, he had to confess, Marie Clarke had really got under his skin

“What if tonight is it? What if tomorrow never comes?” she asked him, knowing just the same as he did that in their line of work nothing was so very certain.

“Don’t go getting soft on me, Clarke,” he warned her, though his tone was far kinder than it might have been with anyone else, his arms sliding round her body to hold her. “We had this conversation. We’re both too pretty to die.” He smiled, but she couldn’t.

“Don’t have to die to be gone,” she reminded him. “When this mission is over... it’s over,” she said, her meaning abundantly clear as she looked up into his eyes.

“If you’re waiting for me to make some romantic speech, you’ll wait a long time, sweetheart,” he told her, but she shook her had - that wasn’t what she wanted at all.

This whole situation bothered him, Marie knew it, even though John Casey thought he was impervious to most kinds of feelings and an expert at hiding the few he did have. She was as trained as he was, maybe more so when it came to reading people. He couldn’t hide from her, they both knew that, just the same as they knew that when she left Burbank it would be for the last time. Chances of them seeing each other again was nothing better than zero.

Casey didn’t much like feeling so conflicted. He never let women get to him, never let anything get to him because he couldn’t afford to. Ilsa had taught him that letting your heart go, even for a moment, could lead to it getting battered and broken somewhere down the line. This was why even when he gave in now and kissed Marie long and hard, falling head first into a moment of passion, he told himself it didn’t mean anything. Everyone needed a physical release sometimes. This wasn’t some act of romance, a pre-empted long goodbye, or a declaration of some kind. It was what it was, a couple of hours spent enjoying the physical pleasure of being with another person. They didn’t care about each other, couldn’t love each other, they couldn’t afford to. This was what John Casey told himself, but he couldn’t in all honesty say he believed it.


	9. Chapter 9

“Yep, that’s them," said Marie in a whisper as she and Casey ducked around the next corner and peered into the warehouse beyond.

From Chuck’s flash, it was hard to tell just exactly which of the warehouses down by the docks was the one in which they would find the Fulcrum agents. In the end they narrowed it down to two, sat back to back at the front of a whole area of such buildings. Sarah had taken Chuck with her around to the left one, whilst Casey and Marie investigated the other. Turned out that right was right in more ways than one tonight.

“Walker, affirmative on this building," said her partner into his watch, waiting for a reply back and a little relieved when he got one if the truth be told.

“Copy that, Casey,” Sarah replied. “I’m taking Chuck back to the car out of harm's way,” she added, and Casey heard the Asset whining in the background.

“Idiot hurt himself already, didn’t he?” he checked, half way between amused and annoyed by the kid always prat-falling into something or other.

“Yes,” answered Walker after a moment, sounding annoyed herself before she severed communications for a while.

When Casey looked up again, he saw the Fulcrum Agents still going about their business, dirty as it was. The woman they’d identified as Starlight or Jennifer Hart seemed to be briefing her men on some kind of mission. If they got close enough they might be able to figure out what that mission entailed, get the intel back to Beckman, and have enough back-up here by the time the action went down that they could have a whole rake of rogue agents arrested. That’d almost make Casey happy, if he were willing to admit he ever felt such a feeling.

Even thinking about happy feelings reminded him of Marie, but when he automatically glanced to look her way, he found she was no longer behind the crate she had been a moment ago. The damn woman had given him the slip whilst he was talking to Walker, and appeared now to be moving in closer to the action inside the warehouse without him to back her up. Not that he thought for a moment she wouldn’t be able to handle herself, but she was headed into the veritable unknown, and you never left your partner behind on such a mission, especially not when it was Casey!

“Women,” he growled as he checked the coast was clear for him to follow her in, hopefully give her some cover if she got into trouble.

Unfortunately, it appeared to be too late for that, as all five men stood before their female boss turned on what could only be Marie, guns already drawn. Casey couldn’t see her at first until they dragged her out. She seemed to go quietly but with five guns trained on her, he could understand why she wouldn’t make a fuss. By now she most likely had plans to get as much intel as possible out of them before attempting an escape they never expected. Chances were good they’d guess she’d have back up, but the good guys had the advantage on the bad today. Casey had a chance now to get back to the car, tell Walker what happened and come save Marie. Bartowksi would be no use, he was almost certain, but there was a chance he could at least drive the car and get them out of here fast when they needed to, and they were probably going to need to.

“So, the human Intersect..." said Fulcrum Agent Hart aka Starlight, just as Casey was about to run for the door.

“Took you long enough to figure it out, Fulcrum Agent Handler.” Marie answered in similar style, interrupting the bitch who would screw up her night. “Maybe you never would have if I hadn’t come walking in here, made it easy for you,” she said, barely wincing in the face of danger, Casey noted, as he glanced back a moment and watched two men bind Marie’s wrists behind her back.

Fighting the urge to run back firing at everything that moved to save her, he pressed on, out of the doors, and moved quickly and quietly towards the Herder parked behind a row of trucks across the way. When he reached his team, he found Bartowski sat halfways in the backseat of the car, worrying a little too loudly about a twisted ankle. To be fair, Walker was trying to shut him up, but not being stern enough about it for Casey’s liking. After all, what was a twisted ankle when Marie could end up dead tonight?

“Shut your mouth, Bartowksi,” his handler growled as was so often his way. “We gotta figure out a plan and fast,” he then said to Walker. “Clarke’s been taken and they think she’s the Intersect.”

“How did that happen?” asked Chuck looking panicked.

This was what he’d feared, other people getting hurt because of who and what he was. Marie was only suspected of being the human Intersect because she had come into contact with himself and his handlers. Now she could get hurt, maybe even killed, because of what she knew, or what they thought she might be.

“She snuck off when I was talking to you,” Casey explained to Sarah, completely ignoring Chuck because it was just easier right now. “Next thing I know they got her and they’re calling her the Intersect.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Sarah frowned hard. “If they thought Marie was the Intersect, why would they shoot at her? Fulcrum don’t want the Asset dead, they want the intel it holds.”

“Okay, excuse me for being picky, but I am a person, not an ‘it’!” argued Chuck, though nobody was listening now, not when something so serious was occurring.

“I don’t think they knew from the start.” Casey shook his head, before looking back over his shoulder a moment, back where he’d had to leave Marie behind in the clutches of the Fulcrum Agents who believed she was the one they wanted. “Not that they know now that they got the wrong girl,” the last word was said very deliberately as he shot a look at Chuck.

There was no time for petty comments and arguments at all, Sarah was acutely aware of that as Casey went to the back of the Herder, quite literally looking to get out the big guns. His fellow agent wasn’t so sure they should go blasting in so fast. There was no telling exactly how many Fulcrum agents they were dealing with. This could be very dangerous without back-up, especially with Chuck in tow.

“Casey, wait,” she urged him as she practically shoved Chuck right into the car, closing the door on him and moving around to get to her partner. “We can’t just...”

“Maybe you can’t, but I’m going, Walker,” he told her definitely. “Four of us came here, and four of us are leaving, one way or another,” he said, getting armed and ready for a one-man assault on that warehouse, if necessary.

“It’s suicidal,” she tried to tell him, putting a hand to his arm. “Casey, you know it is,” she said firmly, eyes meeting his, the pair of them as determined as each other, Chuck noted, as he watched the exchange through the rear window of the car.

“You think I just want to save her," said Casey after a moment, “but you should be worried too. She knows the truth about your boyfriend here,” he said, jerking a thumb towards Bartowski’s prone form in the back of the Herder. “We don’t know how well Clarke would stand up to torture. You want him compromised too?”

Casey knew he was playing dirty, using Walker’s ever-developing feelings for the Asset to get his way, but right now it was all he had. Explaining his own feelings was something he didn’t want to do and probably couldn’t if he did. He had to go back for Marie, he just had to. Even the thought of those Fulcrum scum laying a hand on her, nevermind actually torturing her or worse, it was too much. Keeping his feelings in check always came easy to Casey, but then he didn’t usually feel much anyway. He had trained himself to be, as Bartowski would say, a robot. It was easier, for all agents it was easier, but once in a while a person came along that made it damn near impossible to be so strong and tough all of the time.

“Okay," said Sarah after a moment, “but let’s think about this for a second. We are not going in there without some kind of plan...”

* * *

“So you see, Agent Clarke," said Fulcrum Agent Hart, as she circled the bound up Marie like a lion toying with its prey. “Fulcrum is not so very stupid.”

“So you admit you’re like, a little stupid?” she asked, earning herself a smack across the face and a split lip for her trouble, though Marie barely winced. “You didn’t think I was really the Intersect, good for you,” she said, meeting Hart’s eyes, “but I figured that out when your goon here put a hole in me,” she explained. “You don’t damage the goods, right?”

“Smart girl.” Hart smiled evilly, leaning over Marie, “but not smart enough. It was almost a clever trick, making it appear as if you were the innocent little girl being protected by the big strong agents,” she said, her assumptions all wrong but Marie wasn’t about to tell her that. “Of course if they’re going to keep up the charade, they’re going to have to come in here and save you... You, little girl, are the bait in my very simple trap,” she explained.

“I’m wondering," said Agent Clarke thoughtfully, all the while working carefully at the bonds holding her wrists together behind the chair she was strapped to, “when you keep calling me ‘little girl’, does it make you feel less of an old hag?” she said, her words deliberately meant to anger, and it worked too.

“Enough of this.” Hart yelled, in much less control of her emotions right now than her hostage it seemed. “We have more important people to deal with than the decoy,” she said, dispatching three of her operatives off somewhere, instructing the other two as they leant over a metal box on the table. “We’ve played games long enough.” She smiled as she glanced back at Marie.

Agent Clarke didn’t flinch, she knew what she was doing and her plan couldn’t fail, she wouldn’t let it. She knew very well what the box on the table was, even before the bleeping started up. The timer was set and the C4 was primed. She was being left here as bait with a view to the agents who would save her turning their back on the real Intersect. Sure she could escape her bonds alone, she could defuse a bomb, but to get both of these jobs done and find her way out of this warehouse in the near-dark was a tall order for any lone agent. Of course, Marie Clarke wasn’t alone and she wasn’t just any agent...

* * *

“Hey guys, why are the bad people leaving the warehouse?” asked Chuck, as Sarah and Casey poured over schematics of the building, figuring out the best way to attack Fulcrum and save their fellow agent.

“What?” they spoke almost as one as they turned around, Casey taking the night-vision binoculars from Chuck and surveying the scene.

He counted three Fulcrum Agents leaving, then a moment later three more. That was all of them, everyone was out, except for Marie. Something inside him gave way at the thought they might’ve figured out she was of no use to them and just finished the job they’d started a few days ago. Even they couldn’t miss if they’d shot at point blank range.

Alive or dead, there was no way in hell he was leaving her behind and it took nothing more than a few seconds to decide he was going in.

“Casey, no!” Sarah urged him, grabbing at his arm as he made to run towards the warehouse. “It’s almost guaranteed to be a trap, they must know we’re here!” she told him what he already knew, but it made no difference.

“You keep the Asset safe, I’ll be back,” he said with a look that told Sarah she had no option but to agree.

She let him go because she had to. In the same situation Agent Walker would behave in the exact same way to save Chuck or Bryce, someone she really cared about. She never thought she’d see the day when Casey loved another person enough to break the rules like this, to leave reason behind and act on gut feelings alone, but it seemed to today was that day.

Straight into the warehouse, Casey kept an eye out at all times just in case this really was the trap Walker believed it to be. He saw no-one, which struck him as odd, mostly because even Marie wasn’t here now. With a deep frown on his face, he took in the empty space before him, no evidence anyone had ever been here, no signs of a struggle, no overturned boxes or blood. It made no sense.

Beeping in the far corner caught his ears suddenly and Casey realised that although he was alone in the sense of no people being present, a nasty gift had been left in their place. Cursing under his breath, Casey shoved his gun into the holster and looked over the obvious bomb. The clock was down to two minutes, though it wasn’t clear how big the explosion might be when it blew, until Casey shifted the case holding the workings and realised where the wires from it ran too. They were attached into a hefty pile of boxes that almost definitely held the explosives, enough to take this whole warehouse and reduce it to a blot on the landscape.

Too many wires, too little time. Casey was nothing short of an expert in this kind of work, so many years experience and all, but this was never easy. All the time in the back of his mind he was wondering where Mare had gone, if she was still in the building somewhere. It was one big room, as far as he could tell, very few places for Fulcrum to have left her in whatever state she might be.

“Casey!” Walker’s voice came loud and clear into his ear. “What is going on?” she asked desperately, clearly worried that her partner had been gone a while.

He honestly hadn’t noticed how long til it struck him that the bomb clock was down to a minute and then less...

“Marie!” he yelled in the vain hope she might answer, but no answer came.

Maybe she’d got out somehow, though the odds were slim. He had to hope and right now save himself, and Walker, and the Asset. Though he wasn’t happy about it, he left then, running for all he was worth to the car, yelling for the others to get in before he ever reached them. Chuck opened his mouth to ask what was happening but never got the chance as Casey dove into the driver’s seat and drove away like his life depended on it.

“There’s a bomb, too late to shut it down,” he said, the only explanation given, as he put the car into gear and gunned the engine.

Chuck felt himself being pinned to the back seat by the force as they sped away from the warehouse that was apparently due to explode any moment. Sarah held on tight to the passenger seat, not given time to don a seat-belt before they stated moving. She looked Casey’s way and felt suddenly sick.

“Where’s Marie?” she asked almost wishing she didn’t need to know.

The breath caught in Sarah’s throat the very next moment as her partner glanced her way with a look that said so much more than words ever could have. Casey couldn’t answer Walker’s question, couldn’t bear to have to admit he might have left not only a fellow agent but a woman he really cared about in any kind of danger. He told himself she must have got out on her own steam, though where she would be right now if not with the team, Casey hadn’t an idea.

Sarah knew he had to do it and she knew the pain he was feeling too. Losing Bryce was the hardest thing she had gone through to date, both thinking he was dead and forcing herself not to follow when he left Burbank after his surprise return.

“You don’t think..." said Chuck, causing Casey to grit his teeth in anger, knowing he was going to lose his cool if the Asset started making comments on what was happening. “Marie wouldn’t still be in there, right?” he asked, sounding worried.

It was the last straw for Casey. He knew he never should’ve walked out of that warehouse without her, and he’d never live with himself if he didn’t at least try and go back to get her out. Pulling a hand-brake turn at the end of the parking lot, he doubled-back towards the warehouse that was due to blow at any second.

“Casey, it’s suicide!” Sarah called after him, but her partner was already out of the car and making a run towards the building.

Sarah practically dragged Chuck out of the car, telling him to keep low behind the vehicle in the vain hope it would be enough cover - there was no time to run anymore, she suspected.

As if triggered by her very thought, the explosion suddenly went off, raising the warehouse to the ground. A fireball like nothing Chuck had ever seen outside of a movie rushed into the night sky, illuminating everything in an eerie orange glow. Fingers in his ears and Sarah’s arm across his back, Chuck couldn’t stand to look or barely breathe as debris rained down just feet from where they were hidden.

It might’ve been a few seconds or a few hours, Chuck honestly wasn’t sure, but suddenly Sarah was telling him to get up and follow her. She daren’t leave him alone, not right now, not when the Fulcrum Agents’ whereabouts were unclear. The explosion could be a diversion, a trap, anything, and she wasn’t about to risk any more people tonight.

With her gun in her hands, eyes scanning the scene, Sarah yelled for Casey over the noise of raging fire, through smoke that rolled off the building in waves. Suddenly she saw him, crouched over the body of a woman who appeared to have been flung to the ground. Had she been in the building when it went up, Sarah knew they wouldn’t have found any trace of Marie left behind. She must have got out, just not clear of the blast zone before it was too late.

“Casey!” called Sarah as she and Chuck hurried over, the Asset wincing terribly at the sight of the woman laid on the ground before them.

“Oh my God,” he gasped, as Casey pulled Marie’s motionless body up into his arms.

“No. No way, Clarke, you’re not gonna die on me!” he said desperately, though it was clear any attempts he might make to revive her were in vain.

Sure enough, as Walker dropped to her knees beside the pair, checking for a pulse or any signs of breathing on Marie, she found nothing.

“Casey!” she snapped, her hand on his arm making him look at her. “It’s too late,” she said firmly, feeling terrible and then speaking more softly as she shook her head. “I’m sorry, but she’s gone.”


	10. Chapter 10

“I am sorry for the loss of Agent Clarke," said Beckman, though her facial expression barely altered, as always. “She did her job admirably and died in the line of duty. We’ll see to it she gets a fitting send off,” she told the assembled Team Bartowski. “I’ll arrange for her to be picked up this evening.”

“What about the Fulcrum assholes that did this to her?” asked Casey with barely disguised anger, though he was doing his best to keep it together in front of his boss.

“Thankfully they won’t be giving us any more problems,” Beckman assured both him and the others too. “From the intel you gained earlier in the mission, we were able to track them down after they left their warehouse base. They were all captured by a team just outside of town, including their leader.”

“Justice is served," said Chuck quietly, glad to know that those who had callously allowed a member of his team, a friend in a lot of ways, be killed so needlessly were being brought to account somehow.

Beckman was gone from the screen in a moment, leaving Team Bartowski alone with just each other. None of them really knew what to say for the best, not least because Casey looked ready to commit murder at any second. Sarah was sure if she or Chuck so much as breathed wrong he was going to hit the ceiling, and though that would be wrong and unfair, she did understand. When she lost Bryce, or rather when she thought she had, Sarah was sure she had never felt such pain and loss. Her heart was broken, and though she had often wondered if Casey even had a functioning heart of his own, there was no doubting that he was overwhelmed by how much he felt right now.

Though she was sure he was trying not to do it, his eyes kept drifting to the back room where they had laid Marie’s body. It seemed wrong to talk about her that way, but the facts were what they were. Getting shot, that was sometimes fixable, more often than not for agents like them, but the impact of the explosion seemed to have been too much for Agent Clarke’s body to take, knocking the life clean out of her. Nothing they could’ve done would have brought her back, not a thing, though Chuck had named every possible way he could think of from every conceivable medical drama he had ever watched on TV and a few more besides. He was struggling too, unable to cope with the fact a friend and co-worker had been taken in such a way. When the bad guys went down you didn’t think about it much, just congratulated yourself on getting out of a situation alive. This was so very different.

“C’mon, Chuck," said Sarah quietly, standing behind his seat and putting a hand to his shoulder til he looked around. “Let’s go get some air,” she said with a look that told him what this was really about.

Casey needed some alone time, maybe just to think, perhaps even to cry over his loss. Some people felt the need to say goodbye to those they’d lost, even though it was obviously too late. Whatever the big guy needed, Chuck wanted him to do it and so didn’t say a word as he left with Sarah. He had a hundred things he would’ve liked to have said, but every single one sounded stupid even in his own head.

Alone at last. Casey felt strange just thinking those words. He wasn’t completely alone, albeit Marie wasn’t exactly here either. They had been here earlier, right here, enjoying the pleasures of being together. It was oddly comforting and at the same time overpoweringly painful to remember and Casey closed his eyes tight shut trying to push it all out of his head. On finding the task impossible, he finally lost his cool, spinning round and sweeping stacks of files, papers, and more off the counter behind him. An almost inhuman growling roar escaped his lips, as tears he damned to Hades for being there dared to well up in his eyes.

In the silence that followed, Casey just concentrated on breathing and being calm. He had to find some kind of peace in him, had to let all this anger and sadness go. There wasn’t time to be sentimental, he wasn’t going to turn into some sap like Bartowksi would. There was no denying that losing a person from your life that meant something to you was going to hurt like hell, but he’d known this day was coming from the start. Marie was going to leave, if not today then very soon, and the likelihood of him ever seeing her again was less than zero. It shouldn’t matter that nobody else was ever going to see her alive again either, but it did. It hurt so much he could scream, and yet through all this twisted agony, Casey was still alert and aware. He was hard-wired with agent training, and so when a clattering sound came from the back room he was immediately headed in that direction, a gun in his hands and ready for whatever came next - at least that was the idea.

Absolutely nothing could have prepared Agent John Casey for the sight that met his eyes when he entered the room where he had laid Marie down just a couple of hours before. Instead of a quiet peaceful figure of a woman, Agent Clarke now looked far from done for this world. Pulled up on her knees, she was slamming her hand against the bed, coughing like her lungs were coming up and looking mostly like she was about to heave.

“Son of a...” Casey muttered in shock, holstering his gun without a thought and rushing over to the side of the bed. “Marie?” he checked, almost unable to believe this was happening, half wondering if he was losing his mind.

“For the love of all that’s holy!” she gasped, flipping onto her back, before a further coughing fit took her over. “I am gonna kill the lab rat that gave me that stuff!” she seethed, and though she was clearly suffering and very angry, Casey couldn’t help but smile.

She was alive. Marie Clarke was very much in the land of the living and it made a kind of joy explode in Casey’s heart that he never thought possible. It didn’t make sense, and his over-riding need to get an explanation out of her would kick in soon enough, but right now he was just basking in the fact she was here, she was breathing, she wasn’t dead.

Breathing evenly at last, Marie turned her head to stare at John Casey and the goofy smile still on his lips. She doubted he realised he was grinning like an idiot and she wasn’t about to tell him. She preferred the happy to the anger she was doubtless going to face before long.

“Hey, Johnny,” she said with a smile of her own, albeit a shaky one. “You miss me?” she asked, as if she’d just been gone to the store too long, or lost in the woods, not gone from this mortal coil as she had appeared to be just a moment before.

“What? You mean you went somewhere?” he asked, making her want to laugh but when she tried another cough came out instead.

“Geez, they tell you about the after effects of this stuff but, seriously, ow!” she declared as she sat herself up some, trying to get her breath. “Well, I guess it’s time for the truth, huh?” she sighed as she glanced up at Casey who had now got to his feet and was fetching a chair to sit on by the bed. “I didn’t die, not really, but then I guess that’s obvious.”

“You took something,” he guessed. “One of those drugs. Poison that suspends body functions, makes you seem dead.”

“Give the guy a coconut.” Marie joked, pushing her hair out of her face. “If it’s any consolation, I feel like death,” she added, only realising then that she was shaking some and pulled a nearby blanket around her shoulders.

“So, you got out before the building went up," said Casey. “How’d you know they were going to...?”

“I didn’t,” she interrupted, knowing that men had been shot for lesser crimes than that when it came to Major Casey and his temper, but she wasn’t a man and she’d taken enough chances in her life so far, one more wouldn’t hurt. “I was one step ahead in a lot of ways though. I knew they thought I was the Intersect to start off with. Knew they’d use me somehow but ultimately that I had to get away...” she tried to explain but every so often her head would spin violently with the after effects of the drugs and it was all she could do not to throw up. “I’m sorry,” she said, with her eyes closed and her head leant back against the wall. “Sorry I had to lie and let you believe I was gone.”

“I still don’t understand why you did that.” Casey shook his head. “You could’ve trusted me.”

“Hey, come on,” she replied, her eyes popping open, and she looked just as angry as he did. “You know I trust you,” she said definitely. “Probably more than I should actually,” she admitted, “but I couldn’t trust myself.”

Casey still didn’t get it. As smart as he was what she’d done couldn’t be quantified in his head and Marie knew he needed a real explanation from her. This was actually the exact conversation she’d wanted to avoid, and yet it was not to be.

“I hate goodbyes,” she told him simply, a sad smile on her lips. “I have to do them a lot, but they don’t get easier, and walking away from you a second time?” She shook her head. “Yeah, that was gonna be a real doozy, but it wasn’t just avoiding the sweet sorrow of parting ways,” she went on, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders as she shivered involuntarily one more time. “Too many people know who I am, on both sides of this divide. Fulcrum and the Asset and Walker... My cover has gotten so blown, I was pretty much gonna be no use for the job I was born to do.”

“So you fake your own death, get a new identity, start over a long way from here,” Casey finished for her, sure that was what she was going to say.

Immediately, Marie nodded that he was correct.

“I set the whole thing up with Beckman,” she explained, “and I know I could’ve told you about it, John, but honestly, I thought this would be easier. If you thought I was gone, the real definite kind of gone... I don’t know, I just thought it would be easier,” she repeated, not loving how sentimental she was feeling right now, knowing he must be even more uncomfortable with the fact they were talking about emotions and such.

These were things that agents weren’t supposed to have. The cardinal rule was that you never fell, and yet here they were, her knowing that on some level she was in love with this guy, no matter how hard she tried to fight it. Without wishing to be presumptive, she could easily imagine he felt the same about her. He’d never say it, but she doubted at this point he could deny it and she’d believe him.

For Casey this whole situation was pretty surreal and the honest truth was he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say. He wanted to be mad at Marie for trying to keep a plan as big as this from him, but he could see her reasons and he understood them. He wanted to tell her what he really felt about her, but he wasn’t great at verbalising that kind of thing. Besides, that kind of declaration would only make it harder when she had to leave, and she did have to do that very soon.

“I wish you’d told me the truth,” he told her with a look. “Also wish you were in a fit state for me to kiss you goodbye,” he added in a moment of odd truthfulness and with a smile that even Marie had only seen a few rare times since she’d known the guy.

“Give me a minute, I’ll get there.” She smiled back, unable to help herself. “I guess you’re gonna miss me, huh?” she asked, her grin widening.

“Don’t get cocky, Clarke,” Casey advised though he was still smiling just the same as he moved to sit next to her on the bed, leant back against the wall just like she was.

“I’m sure gonna miss that name,” she sighed, pushing her hair back out of her face again, and wincing some as her body protested at being moved at all.

Casey looked at her a little oddly then, perhaps too caught up on all that was happening to realise what Marie really meant by that.

“I meant what I said,” she told the man she’d played the part of girlfriend to for a while and loved it. “Marie Clarke has to be dead for me to do my job. The new ID’s already being made,” she explained what Casey ought to have already realised. “Hi, my name’s Jane Linderman,” she told him, looking all perky and innocent as she held out a hand as if to shake on an introduction. “You think it suits me?” she asked, with a sadness in her eyes that made a liar out of her smile.

John Casey had always been a man of few words, preferring actions to verbalising anything much. Still, this whole thing was enough to make even his usual brief comments all but disappear. He didn’t know where to begin with her, in all honesty he never really had, and he certainly didn’t know how to end things. His hand slipped to the side of her face, pushing her hair aside, cupping her grazed cheek.

“You’ll always be Marie to me,” he said, too softly for his own liking but his voice was as out of his control as everything else right now.

“Where’s that kiss I was hearing about before?” she asked, sure her own words were going to fail her before long, as well as her resolve not to cry.

When his lips covered hers then, they knew this was it. This was where the journey ended and they went their separate ways. They would part, he would have to walk out of this room as she succumbed to a second dose of whatever she had taken the first time around. Marie Clarke’s body would leave the Castle and be delivered wherever she needed to be. Jane Linderman would be the phoenix to rise from her ashes, but this man she clung to now would never meet her.

Finally forced to part, it was clear neither Marie nor Casey wanted this to really be over, but they had jobs to do and that mattered more than whatever they were feeling, at least that was what they would tell themselves, today and every day that followed.

“I can’t believe I’m ever going to forget you,” she said, blinking hard to keep from crying in front of him. “You’re a hell of a man, John Casey,” she told him, her fingers lingering at his cheek, running down his chest as he made himself stand up and turn away from her.

Reaching inside her clothes, Marie pulled out the second pill she had secreted just in case this very situation occurred. She stared at it in her hand a moment then glanced toward the doorway in which Casey stood, his back to her now.

“I’d ask if you’re gonna remember me too,” she said, making him look back at her one last time, “but I know you will.” She smiled, committing his face to memory as he returned the look.

A minute later and Marie Clarke was gone, as John Casey walked out of the room, then out of the Castle completely. Life was never going to feel quite the same from here on out, but he still had a job to do, and that was what he lived for.


End file.
